THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

Ex  Libris 

Katharine  F.  Richmond 

and 
Henry  C.  Fall 


OFFICIAL  PROCEEDINGS 


DEDICATION  OF  THE  STATUE 


DANIEL  WEBSTER 


CONCORD,    NEW   HAMPSHIRE, 

On  the  i/th  day  of  June, 
1886. 


PUBLISHED  BY  ORDER  OF  THE  GOVERNOR  AND  COUNCIL. 


MANCHESTER: 

JOHN     B.     CLARKE,     PUBLIC     PRINTER. 
1886. 


EXECUTIVE  COUNCIL  CHAMBER, 

CONCORD,  June  10,  1886. 

Ordered,  That  the  secretary  of  state  be  authorized  to  employ  a  sten- 
ographer to  report  the  official  proceedings  to  take  place  at  the 
dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  on  the  17th  instant, 
and  to  procure  the  publication  of  three  thousand  copies  of  said 
report. 

Attest : 

A.  B.  THOMPSON, 

Secretary  of  State. 


1066714 


PRELIMINARY  PROCEEDINGS. 


THE  WEBSTER  STATUE  AND  ITS  HISTORY. 

BY    B.    W.    BALL. 

WE  have  as  a  nation  reached  a  period  of  commemora- 
tion of  our  historic  men.  Although  our  national  exist- 
ence involves  but  a  single  century,  still  that  century 
in  connection  with  the  colonial  period  has  been  illus- 
trated by  a  long  list  of  memorable  Americans.  The  cap- 
itol  at  Washington  and  the  various  state  capitols  are 
being  transformed  into  valhallas  for  commemorative  pur- 
poses. These  edifices  and  their  precincts,  together  with 
the  city  parks  of  our  great  cities,  are  the  appropriate  sites 
for  the  erection  of  memorial  statues  of  the  illustrious 
dead,  and  for  this  purpose  they  are  being  rapidly  util- 
ized, Central  Park,  New  York,  conspicuously  so.  The 
nation  is  now  amply  able,  by  reason  of  its  wealth  and  its 
multitude  of  artists  and  persons  of  fine  aesthetic  culture, 
to  fitly  honor  its  great  men  departed.  As  has  been  said, 
brief  as  has  been  our  national  existence  we  have  plenty 
of  subjects  for  the  commemorative  sculptor  and  artist  in 
stone,  bronze,  or  pigments.  All  the  periods  of  American 
history,  from  that  of  discovery  and  exploration  down  to 
the  present  time,  have  abounded  in  such  subjects.  Prim- 


6  STATUE    OF    DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

itive  Greece,  in  city  and  country  both,  was  literally  pop- 
ulous with  statues  in  stone  and  bronze  of  its  famous  men. 
Primitive  Athens,  in  particular,  was  full  of  carven  forms 

"  that  mocked  the  eternal  dead 
In  marble  immortality." 

No  objects  are  so  impressive  as  the  statues  of  great 
men,  and  none  exert  so  salutary  and  potent  an  influence 
on  the  younger  generations.  In  all  the  metropolitan 
cities  of  Europe  the  traveler  is  confronted  by  memorial 
statues  of  the  great  men  whose  words  and  deeds  have 
been  a  part  of  his  education ;  and  already  in  our  chief 
American  cities  the  eye  is  attracted  by  the  carven  sem- 
blances of  the  most  famous  men  of  this  new  world  repub- 
lic. Central  Park,  New  York,  as  the  pleasure-ground  of 
that  polyglot,  many-nationed  metropolis,  is  appropriately 
enough  hospitable  to  the  memorial  statues  of  the  great 
men  of  all  countries,  whether  European  or  American. 

"  In  that  free  Pantheon  of  sun  and  air,1' 

as  Bayard  Taylor  calls  it,  a  statue  of  the  world-poet, 
Shakespeare,  who,  by  the  way,  belongs  to  this  American 
division  of  the  great  English-speaking  world  as  much  as 
he  does  to  the  home  branch  of  our  race,  was  dedicated 

in  1872. 

"  There  in  his  right  he  stands  ! 
No  breadth  of  earth-dividing  seas  can  bar 
The  breeze  of  morning  or  the  morning  star 
From  visiting  our  lands." 

What  Shakespeare  was  in  the  domain  of  poetry  and 
the  imagination,  that  was  Webster  in  the  field  of  states- 
manship. 


PRELIMINARY  PROCEEDINGS.  7 

Thus  much  by  way  of  general  remark  on  the  subject 
of  permanent  memorials  of  historic  men. 

The  centennial  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Webster, 
which  occurred  January  18,  1882,  was  generally  cele- 
brated throughout  the  country.  The  Webster  legend,  so 
to  speak,  was  everywhere  revived.  After  an  interval  of 
thirty  most  eventful  years,  full  of  change,  the  country 
seemed  again  to  have  fallen  under  the  spell  of  Webster's 
genius.  The  younger  generation,  to  whom  he  was 
purely  a  historic  character,  had  an  opportunity  to  listen 
to  eloquent  speakers  who  had  lived  in  Webster's  day, 
and  who  could  testify  of  their  own  personal  knowledge 
to  his  marvelous  influence  and  power.  Webster  clubs 
and  Webster  historical  societies,  which  had  been  organ- 
ized to  keep  his  memory  fresh,  everywhere  caused  the 
occasion  to  be  fitly  celebrated  by  public  meetings  and 
memorial  addresses.  The  Webster  Club  at  Concord, 
N.  H.,  observed  the  centennial  anniversary  of  Webster's 
nativity  by  a  public  meeting  at  White's  Opera  House. 
The  orator  of  the  occasion  was  Col.  John  H.  George. 
His  address  was  noteworthy  among  the  numerous  ad- 
dresses which  were  delivered,  because  it  called  the  atten- 
tion of  the  people  of  New  Hampshire  to  the  fact  that  the 
native  state  of  Webster  was  without  a  single  memorial 
statue  of  her  greatest  son. 

The  following  is  the  passage  in  Col.  George's  address 
which,  by  eloquently  pointing  out  the  above  deficiency, 
was  the  initial  step  in  the  history  of  the  erection  of  the 
Webster  statue,  now  so  conspicuous  an  object  in  the 
state-house  grounds  of  his  native  state  :  "  There  is  a 
bronze  statue  of  Webster,"  said  Col.  George,  "by  Pow- 


8  STATUE    OF    DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

ers,  which  was  lost  at  sea.  It  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  somewhere  in  the  vicinity  of  the  tele- 
graphic cable,  as  we  are  told.  A  duplicate  of  it  is  stand- 
ing in  the  state-house  grounds  in  Boston.  Of  this  lost 
statue  Hawthorne  remarks  in  his  '  Italian  Notes ' :  '  There 
is  an  expression  of  quiet,  solid,  massive  strength  in  the 
whole  figure  ;  a  deep,  pervading  energy  which  any  exag- 
geration of  gesture  would  lessen  and  lower.  He  looks 
like  a  pillar  of  state.  The  face  is  very  grand,  very  "Web- 
ster, stern  and  awful,  because  he  is  in  the  act  of  meeting 
a  crisis,  yet  with  the  warmth  of  a  great  heart  glowing 
through  it.  Happy  is  "Webster  to  have  been  so  truly  and 
adequately  sculptured.  Happy  the  sculptor  in  such  a 
subject,  with  which  no  idealization  of  a  demi-god  could 
have  supplied  him.  Perhaps  the  statue  at  the  bottom  of 
the  sea  will  be  cast  up  in  some  future  age,  when  the  pres- 
ent race  of  man  is  forgotten,  and,  if  so,  that  far  posterity 
will  look  up  to  us  as  a  grander  race  than  we  find  our- 
selves.' Apropos  of  this  extract,  we  are  reminded  that 
the  state  of  Webster's  nativity  lacks  to  this  day  a  monu- 
mental statue  of  her  greatest  son.  It  is  a  lack  that 
should  no  longer  be  permitted  to  disgrace  us.  While 
Boston  and  New  York  have  erected  on  most  conspicuous 
sites  colossal  bronze  statues  to  the  memory  of  Webster  as 
among  the  worthiest  of  great  Americans,  to  stand  carved 
or  cast  in  enduring  material  for  the  inspection  of  pos- 
terity, this  his  native  state  has  erected  no  monument 
illustrative  of  her  appreciation  of  the  services  of  her 
ablest  son  in  the  cause  of  constitutional  liberty.  There 
should  be  a  monumental  statue  here  at  the  state  capital, 
and  also  at  his  birthplace,  where  his  form  would  most 


PRELIMINARY  PROCEEDINGS.  9 

appropriately  stand,  sweeping  with  its  gaze  the  broad 
intervals  which  he  loved  so  well,  and  so  often  frequented 
for  rest  and  recreation  during  his  arduous  career  as  a 
public  man.  His  sublime  form  would  be  the  most  appro- 
priate genius  loci  of  our  sublime  local  scenery." 

It  was  these  eloquent  words  which,  falling  under  the 
eye  of  Mr.  Cheney,  determined  him  to  carry  into  effect  a 
purpose  which  he  had  long  entertained  of  presenting  to 
his  native  state  a  statue  of  her  greatest  citizen,  whom 
Mr.  Cheney  not  only  admired  in  common  with  the  rest 
of  his  countrymen  as  a  great  statesman,  but  whom  he 
also  loved  as  a  personal  friend  who  had  interested  him- 
self in  his  own  welfare  as  a  business  man.  The  commis- 
sion to  execute  the  statue  was  at  first  given  to  the  well- 
known  Boston  sculptor,  the  late  Martin  Milmore,  but  he 
died  before  the  completion  of  his  model.  His  brother 
Joseph  was  employed  to  finish  the  work,  but  he  too  was 
prevented  by  death  from  putting  the  finishing  touch  to 
the  model.  Thus  the  business  of  carrying  into  effect  Mr. 
Cheney's  plan  had  to  be  commenced  de  novo.  Meantime, 
to  secure  the  final  consummation  of  his  plan,  and  pre- 
vent its  failure  in  any  contingency,  Mr.  Cheney  placed 
its  execution  in  the  hands  of  three  trustees,  viz.,  Hon. 
George  W.  !N"esmith,  John  M.  Hill,  Esq.,  and  Col.  John 
H.  George,  by  the  following  deed  of  trust :  — 

WHEREAS,  It  is  now  and  long  has  been  the  desire  and  intention  of 
the  undersigned,  Benjamin  Pierce  Cheney,  formerly  of  Hillsborough, 
in  the  county  of  Hillsborough  and  state  of  New  Hampshire,  and  now 
of  Boston,  in  the  county  of  Suffolk  and  commonwealth  of  Massachu- 
setts, to  procure  a  bronze  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  and,  with  the 
permission  of  the  state,  to  erect  the  same  upon  a  fitting  pedestal 
with  permanent  granite  foundations,  in  the  state-house  yard  in  Con- 
cord, New  Hampshire ;  and 


10  STATUE    OF    DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

WHEREAS,  Unexpected  delays  have  occurred  in  carrying  such  inten- 
tion into  effect,  and  it  is  the  wish  of  said  Cheney  to  provide  against 
the  defeat  of  said  intention  by  any  contingency  incident  to  the  uncer- 
tainty of  life  or  otherwise ;  and 

WHEREAS,  A  contract  has  been  negotiated  with  Thomas  Ball,  who- 
is  now  in  Europe,  for  furnishing  said  statue  for  the  sum  of  $8,000, 
with  the  cost  of  transportation  added,  to  be  completed,  if  practicable, 
as  early  as  November,  1885 ; 

Now,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  the  intention  aforesaid  into  full 
effect,  this  contract  between  said  Cheney,  party  of  the  first  part,  and 
George  W.  Nesmith,  of  Franklin,  and  John  M.  Hill  and  John  H. 
George,  both  of  Concord,  and  all  in  the  county  of  Merrimack  in  the 
state  of  New  Hampshire,  parties  of  the  second  part,  witnesseth : 

The  first  party,  in  consideration  of  the  agreements  of  the  second 
parties,  herein  contained,  will,  as  soon  as  shall  be  practicable,  pro- 
cure and  place  in  the  hands  of  the  second  parties  a  bronze  statue  of 
Daniel  Webster,  which  shall  be  placed  upon  a  suitable  pedestal,  rest- 
ing on  a  permanent  granite  foundation,  in  the  yard  of  the  state  house 
in  said  Concord,  and  said  statue  is  never  to  be  removed  from  said 
location.  After  it  shall  be  completed  and  erected  as  aforesaid,  it 
shall  be  presented  by  said  second  parties  to  the  state  of  Webster's 
birth,  to  the  care  and  custody  of  which  state  it  shall  thus  be  forever 
committed,  with  such  ceremonies  as  shall  seem  best  adapted  to  per- 
petuate the  memory  and  honor  the  patriotism  of  New  Hampshire's 
greatest  son  and  our  country's  foremost  statesman.  If  there  shall 
be  any  failure  to  carry  into  effect  and  complete  all  of  the  above 
agreements  and  intentions  before  the  decease  of  said  first  party,  it  is 
directed  and  agreed  that  the  same  may  then  be  carried  into  full  effect 
and  completed  by  said  parties  of  the  second  part,  at  the  expense  of 
the  first  party  or  his  estate. 

In  case  of  the  death  or  incapacity  of  any  of  the  trustees  herein 
named,  before  the  completion  of  said  statue  and  its  erection,  and  the 
conveyance  to  the  state  as  aforesaid,  the  surviving  trustees  or  trus- 
tee may  carry  into  effect  this  agreement ;  or  they  may,  if  they  pre- 
fer, appoint  some  suitable  person  or  persons  to  fill  the  vacancy  or 
vacancies  thus  occurring,  who,  with  such  surviving  trustees  or  trus- 
tee, may  perform  the  agreements  of  the  second  parties  herein  con- 
tained. And  said  second  parties,  in  consideration  of  the  aforesaid 
agreements  of  the  first  party,  accept  the  trust  above  specified,  and 
on  the  procurement  of  said  statue  by  said  first  party,  or  by  his  estate, 
and  its  delivery  with  said  pedestal  and  said  foundation  to  said  second 
parties,  will  cause  the  same  to  be  erected  as  above  provided,  and 
will  convey  the  same,  when  so  erected,  to  the  state  of  New  Hamp- 


PRELIMINARY  PROCEEDINGS.  11 

shire,  in  accordance  with  the  desire  and  intention  of  the  first  party, 
as  above  set  forth. 

In  witness  whereof  said  parties  have  hereto  interchangeably  set 
their  hands  and  seals  this  13th  day  of  February,  1885. 

At  this  point,  the  eminent  American  sculptor,  Thomas 
Ball,  who  was  at  the  time  a  resident  of  Florence,  Italy, 
was  commissioned  by  cable  to  model  the  statue,  being 
governed  as  to  its  proportions  and  characteristics  by  the 
statue  of  Franklin  in  City  Hall  yard,  Boston.  The  statue 
was  to  be  completed  and  ready  for  shipment  in  season  for 
its  dedication  on  January  18  of  the  current  year,  which 
was  the  anniversary  of  Webster's  birth.  But  finally 
the  dedication  of  it  was  postponed  to  the  seventeenth  of 
June,  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  with 
which  Webster  had  forever  linked  his  name  by  his  Bun- 
ker Hill  Monument  addresses.  The  statue  was  cast  in 
Munich,  so  famous  for  its  exquisite  bronze  castings.  It 
was  regarded  as  so  perfect  a  work  of  art,  that  it  was 
placed  on  exhibition  in  the  Bavarian  capital  by  general 
request.  The  Jovine  proportions  of  Webster's  head  and 
form  of  course  made  the  statue  of  him  the  cynosure  of 
an  admiring  public  gaze,  as  well  as  its  exquisite  work- 
manship. There  was  only  one  other  statue  in  Germany 
at  the  time  equally  noteworthy,  on  account  of  its  impos- 
ing and  magnificent  proportions  and  aspect,  viz.,  that  of 
the  poet  Goethe,  at  Frankfurt-on-the-Main,  who  had  the 
same  commanding  virile  beauty  which  characterized 
Webster.  He,  too,  like  Webster,  struck  all  beholders 
with  a  thrill  of  admiration  by  his  personal  grandeur,  so 
much  so,  that  the  first  Napoleon  on  seeing  him  exclaimed,. 
"  You  are  a  man!" 


12  STATUE    OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

The  figure  is  eight  feet  in  height  and  weighs  two 
thousand  pounds ;  it  stands  upon  a  light  bronze  base, 
the  dimensions  of  which  are  thirty-two  by  thirty  inches. 
Webster  is  arrayed  in  an  old-style  dress  suit.  His  ample 
coat  is  closed  around  him  by  the  two  central  buttons.  It 
has  broad  lapels,  and  its  large  and  rolling  collar  discloses  a 
plain  shirt  bosom.  The  bottom  of  the  vest  is  seen  below 
the  coat,  and  the  trousers  are  full  and  flowing.  The  neck 
is  dressed  with  a  stock,  with  a  broad,  turned-down  collar. 
The  arms  are  at  the  sides,  the  thumb  and  index  finger  of 
the  right  hand  being  opened,  with  the  remaining  fingers 
partially  closed.  The  left  hand  holds  a  manuscript  partly 
opened.  The  head  represents  Webster  in  his  closing 
years,  and  the  features  are  said  by  those  who  knew  him 
to  be  extremely  lifelike  and  correct.  The  pose  is  massive 
and  commanding,  and  is  pronounced  as  unexceptionable. 
The  head  is  slightly  turned  to  the  right,  the  face  is  smooth, 
and  the  expression  is  of  the  highest  intellectual  character. 
In  the  rear  of  the  right  leg  is  an  irregular  pile  of  books 
surmounted  by  manuscript. 

The  pedestal  was  cut  from  the  finest  of  Concord  granite 
by  the  Granite  Railway  Company  of  this  city;  Henry  E. 
Sheldon  is  agent,  and  Joseph  H.  Pearce  superintendent. 
The  plans  for  the  pedestal  were  drawn  by  John  A.  Fox, 
the  well-known  Boston  architect,  and  the  work  was  exe- 
cuted under  his  direction.  The  base  is  a  single  stone 
about  nine  feet  square,  weighing  eleven  tons,  and  show- 
ing cut  work  of  some  six  inches  above  ground.  The 
plinth  is  six  and  one  half  feet  square,  four  feet  high,  and 
weighs  thirteen  tons.  It  has  beveled  edges  and  a  series 
of  finely  cut  moldings.  The  die  is  four  and  one  quarter 


PRELIMINARY  PROCEEDINGS.  13 

feet  square  and  five  and  one  quarter  feet  high,  and  taper- 
ing toward  the  top.  On  the  front  are  the  words,  cut  in 
polished  letters :  — 

DANIEL 
WEBSTER 

On  the  other  sides  are  panels  of  fine  government  bronze  of  a  light 
shade.  On  the  north  one  the  coat-of-arms  of  New  Hampshire  and 
the  legend, 

BORN 

AT   SALISBURY,    NEW  HAMPSHIRE, 
JANUARY  18,   1782. 

On  the  south  tablet  is  the  coat-of-arms  of  the  state  of  Massachu- 
setts and  the  inscription, 

DIED  AT 

MARSHFIELD,    MASSACHUSETTS, 
OCTOBER  24,  1852. 

On  the  west  side  is  the  following :  — 

PRESENTED   BY 

BENJAMIN  PIERCE  CHENEY 

TO   THE   STATE   OF  NEW  HAMPSHIRE, 
JANUARY  18,  1886. 

The  whole  height  of  the  base  and  statue  is  seventeen 
and  one  eighth  feet,  and  the  total  cost  was  $12,000. 

The  legislature,  by  the  following  resolves,  authorized 
the  governor  and  council  to  select  the  site  for  the 
statue  :  — 

A  JOINT  RESOLUTION  GRANTING  A  TRACT  OF  LAND  FOR  THE  LOCA- 
TION OF  A  MONUMENT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Be  it  Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  in  General 

Court  convened  : 

SECTION  1.  That  there  be  granted  and  set  apart  forever  a  tract  of 
land  not  exceeding  two  rods  square,  in  some  convenient  part  of  the 
state-house  yard  in  Concord,  to  be  selected  by  the  governor  and 
council,  suitable  for  the  permanent  erection  of  a  bronze  monument 
of  Daniel  Webster,  to  be  donated  and  furnished  by  Benjamin  Pierce 
Chene}7,  Esq.,  of  Boston. 


14  STATUE    OF    DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

SECT.  2.  That  the  custody  and  future  protective  care  of  said 
monument  shall  be  assumed  and  forever  hereafter  remain  and  be 
vested  in  the  governor  and  council  of  this  state  for  the  time  being, 
or  in  a  board  of  trustees  of  their  appointment. 

[Approved  August  8,  1883.] 

On  February  11,  1886,  the  governor  and  council 
passed  the  following :  — 

Voted,  That  in  accordance  with  chapter  125,  laws  of  1883,  the  plan 
-  of  the  location  of  the  Webster  statue  submitted  to  the  board  to-day 
be  and  is  hereby  approved ;  and  that  a  committee  consisting  of  the 
governor  and  Councilor  Kimball  be  appointed  to  prepare  the  site 
for  the  reception  of  the  statue,  and  that  the  plan  of  the  same  be 
deposited  in  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  state. 

The  legislature  at  its  last  session  made  provision  for 
the  reception  and  dedication  of  the  statue.  On  July  8, 
General  Oilman  Marston,  of  Exeter,  offered  in  the  house 
a  joint  resolution  providing  for  the  appointment  of  a 
joint  committee  of  the  senate  and  house  of  representa- 
tives, with  authority  to  make  arrangements  for  the  recep- 
tion and  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster, 
presented  to  the  state  by  Benjamin  Pierce  Cheney. 
August  28,  the  house  judiciary  committee  reported  the 
resolution,  wrhich  was  passed  under  a  suspension  of  the 
rules,  and  subsequently  the  same  day  w7as  passed  by  the 
senate. 

The  following  is  the  resolution  :  — 

.JOINT  RESOLUTION  RELATIVE  TO  THE  RECEPTION  AND  DEDICATION 
OF  THE  STATUE  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  and    House  of  Representatives  in    General 

Court  convened : 

That  a  joint  committee,  consisting  of  five  members  of  the  house, 
-of  which  the  speaker  shall  be  one,  and  such  as  the  senate  may  join, 
.be  appointed  with  authority  to  make  proper  arrangements  for  the 


PRELIMINARY  PROCEEDINGS.  15 

reception  and  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  to  be  pre- 
sented to  the  state  of  New  Hampshire  by  Benjamin  Pierce  Cheney, 
and  that  the  necessary  expenses  authorized  by  said  committee  be 
audited  and  approved  by  the  govei-nor  and  council,  and  paid  from  the 
state  treasury. 

[Approved  August  28,  1885.] 

The  same  day  the  speaker  announced  the  special  com- 
mittee on  the  part  of  the  house  as  follows :  Messrs.  Mars- 
ton  of  Exeter,  Hutchins  of  Laconia,  McDuffee  of  Roch- 
ester, Aldrich  of  Littleton,  and  Stone  of  Andover  ;  and 
the  senate  appointed  on  their  part  Senators  Pike,  Kent, 
Chamberlain,  Bingham,  and  Hinds.  The  location  of  the 
statue  was  fixed  by  the  governor  and  council. 


THE  DEDICATION  EXERCISES. 


THE  PROCESSION. 

THE  procession  moved  up  Main  street  about  half  past 
twelve  o'clock,  and  returned  one  hour  later.  The  streets 
along  which  it  passed  were  lined  with  people,  and  the  fine 
appearance  made  by  the  National  Guard,  the  Amoskeag 
Veterans,  and  the  Manchester  Cadets,  called  forth  hearty 
applause.  General  Ayling's  efficiency  as  chief  marshal 
aided  in  making  the  parade  a  fine  success,  and  his  staff 
ably  seconded  his  efforts.  The  brigade  returned  to  camp 
after  the  line  of  march  was  ended,  and  the  Manchester 
companies  repaired  to  Phenix  Hall,  where  they  dined. 
The  line  of  march  and  the  organizations  and  guests  were 
as  follows :  — 

LINE  OF  MARCH. 

Up  Main  street  to  Penacook  street ;  countermarch  on  Main  street  to 
Washington  street;  through  Washington  street  to  State  street; 
down  State  street  to  Thorndike  street ;  through  Thorndike  street 
to  Main  street;  up  Main  street  to  the  state-house  park. 

OFFICERS. 

General  A.  D.  Ayling,  Concord,  chief  marshal. 
Colonel  Solon  A.  Carter,  Concqrd,  chief  of  staff. 
Aides. — Gen.   John    W.   Sturtevant,   Keene ;    Gen.    Marshall    C. 
Wentworth,  Jackson;  Gen.  George  H.  Calley,  Plymouth;   Col. 
Converse  J.  Smith,  Major  Hiram  F.  Gerrish,  James  H.  French, 
Arthur  C.   Stewart,  Concord;  Gen.  Solon  A.  Wilkinson,  Keene ; 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  17 

Gen.  Gilman  B.  Johnson,  Col.  Rufus  P.  Staniels,  Concord;  Col. 
Frank  G.  Clarke,  Peterborough ;  Howard  L.  Porter,  Dr.  F.  A. 
Stillings,  John  B.  Gilman,  Everett  W.  Willard,  William  F. 
Thayer,  James  Minot,  William  F.  Challis,  William  M.  Mason, 
Edward  P.  Comins,  Concord. 

FIRST  BRIGADE   N.  H.   NATIONAL   GUARD. 

Brig.  Gen.  Daniel  M.  White,  Peterborough,  commanding;  Lieut. 
Col.  George  W.  Gould,  Manchester,  assistant  adjutant-general ; 
Major  Frank  Wr.  Russell,  Plymouth,  assistant  inspector-general ; 
Major  William  H.  Cheever,  Nashua,  inspector  of  rifle  practice ; 
Lieut.  Col.  George  Cook,  Concord,  medical  director;  Major 
Daniel  B.  Donovan,  Concord,  judge-advocate ;  Capt.  Louis  C. 
Merrill,  Manchester,  quartermaster;  Capt.  Willis  D.  Thompson, 
Concord,  commissary ;  Capt.  Richard  M.  Scammon,  Exeter,  Capt. 
Daniel  H.  Gienty,  Concord,  aides-de-camp. 

NON-COMMISSIONED   STAFF. 

Harley  B.  Roby,  Concord,  brigade  sergeant-major;  Charles  A. 
Hall,  Concord,  brigade  quartermaster-sergeant ;  George  M.Davis, 
Manchester,  brigade  hospital  steward;  John  T.  Fiske,  Concord, 
brigade  color-sergeant;  Henry  A.  Brown,  Penacook,  brigade 
bugler. 

THIRD  REGIMENT. 

Third  Regiment  Band,  of  Concord. 

FIELD   AND   STAFF. 

Col.  J.  N.  Patterson,  Concord;  Lieut.  Col.  True  Sanbom,  Jr.,  Chi- 
chester;  Maj.  Nathan  H.  Randlett,  Lebanon. 

Fred  S.  Hall,  Rumney,  adjutant;  Harry  B.  Cilley,  Concord,  quarter- 
master ;  George  R.  Leavitt,  Laconia,  paymaster ;  Irving  A.  Wat- 
son, Concord,  surgeon ;  Frank  T.  Moffett,  Littleton,  assistant 
surgeon;  Daniel  C.  Roberts,  Concord,  chaplain. 

HONORARY   STAFF. 

Col.  J.  E.  Pecker,  Concord;  Col.  F.  C.  Churchill,  Lebanon;  Col. 
George  H.  Stowell,  Claremont;  Col.  D.  C.  Jewell,  Suncook;  Col. 
C.  H.  Greenleaf,  Franconia;  Col.  W.  S.  Pillsbury,  Derry;  Col. 
O.  P.  Patten,  Kingston;  Col.  W.  H.  Stinson,  Dunbarton;  Major 
C.  F.  Hildreth,  Suncook ;  Col.  C.  J.  Smith,  Concord ;  Col.  F.  E. 
Kaley,  Milford. 
•2 


18  STATUE    OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

NON-COMMISSIONED   STAFF. 

Robert  H.  Rolfe,  Concord,  sergeant-major;  William  O.  Stevens, 
Franklin  Falls,  quartermaster-sergeant;  Arthur  M.  Dodge,  Tilton, 
commissary-sergeant ;  J.  Henry  Story,  Laconia,  hospital  steward  ; 
James  F.  Clark,  Concord,  drum  major ;  Henry  G.  Blaisdell,  Con- 
cord, bandmaster;  Arthur  F.  Nevers,  Concord,  deputy  band- 
master. 

LINE   OFFICERS. 

Company  A,  New  London :  William  A.  Messer,  captain ;  Willard 
Reed,  first  lieutenant ;  Baxter  Gay,  second  lieutenant. 

Company  F,  Littleton :  John  T.  Simpson,  captain;  Frank  C.  Wil- 
liams, first  lieutenant;  Henry  E.  Bartlett,  second  lieutenant. 

Company  C,  Concord :  Edward  H.  Dixon,  captain ;  Charles  P. 
Hadley,  first  lieutenant;  John  E.  Gove,  second  lieutenant. 

Company  D,  Pittsfield  :  William  A.  Yeaton,  captain;  Walter  Lang- 
maid,  first  lieutenant ;  Forest  F.  Hill,  second  lieutenant. 

Company  G,  Lebanon:  Charles  H.  Clough,  captain:  Eugene  S. 
Downes,  first  lieutenant ;  George  A.  Freeto,  second  lieutenant. 

Company  K,  Wolfeborough  :  Joseph  Lewando,  captain  ;  Charles  L. 
Home,  first  lieutenant. 

Company  E,  Plymouth :  George  H.  Colby,  captain ;  Erastus  B. 
Dearborn,  first  lieutenant;  Henry  S.  Arris,  second  lieutenant. 

Company  H,  Franklin  Falls :  George  N.  Cheever,  captain ;  Amos  S. 
Ripley,  first  lieutenant;  Hollis  K.  Smith,  second  lieutenant. 

FIRST  REGIMENT. 

First  Regiment  Band,  of  Manchester. 

FIELD   AND   STAFF. 

Col.  John  B.  Hall,  Manchester;  Lieut.  Col.  G.  M.  L.  Lane,  Manches- 
ter; Maj.  Patrick  A.  Devine,  Manchester. 

John  Gannon,  Jr.,  Manchester,  adjutant;  William  G.  Mason,  Man- 
chester, quartermaster ;  Hervey  M.  Bennett,  Manchester,  paymas- 
ter; William  M.  Parsons,  Manchester,  surgeon;  James  Sullivan, 
Manchester,  assistant  surgeon. 

NON-COMMISSIONED   STAFF. 

Louis  Stevens,  Manchester,  sergeant-major;  A.  E.  J.  Kurd,  Man- 
chester, hospital  steward ;  Bart.  Gannon,  Manchester,  commissary- 
sergeant;  H.  D.  Gordon,  Manchester,  bandmaster;  F.  H.  Pike, 
Manchester,  drum  major. 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  19 

LINE   OFFICERS. 

Company  A,  Dover:  G.  H.  Demerit!,  captain;  M.  J.  Galligan,  first 

lieutenant ;  J.  H.  Ingraham,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  E,  Manchester:  F.  W.  McAllister,  captain  ;  O.  I.  Ellsworth, 

first  lieutenant;  F.  W.  Tebbetts,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  B,  Manchester:  D.  F.  Shea,  captain;  E.  P.  Bagley,  first 

lieutenant ;  J.  F.  Gleason,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  D,  Exeter :  A.  F.  Cooper,  captain ;  G.  E.  Warren,  first 

lieutenant;  A.  N.  Dow,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  F,  Deny:  R.  W.  Pillsbury,  captain;  J.  E.  Webster,  first 

lieutenant;  J.  E.  Fitzgerald,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  H,  Great  Falls :  J.  Mack,  captain ;  William  J.  Andrews, 

first  lieutenant ;  C.  W.  Willey,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  C,  Goffstown :  L.  S.  Bidwell,  captain;  S.  H.  Balch,  first 

lieutenant ;  G.  E.  Whitney,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  K,  Manchester:  J.  H.  Wales,  Jr.,  captain;  P.  H.  O'Mal- 

ley,  first  lieutenant;  A.  F.  Eaton,  second  lieutenant. 

Drum  Corps. 
HIGH   SCHOOL  CADETS   OF  MANCHESTER. 

George  L.  Fox,  captain ;  Minot  O.  Simons,  first  lieutenant ;  Lewis 
Crockett,  second  lieutenant. 

Manchester  War  Veterans  Drum  Corps. 

SECOND  REGIMENT. 
Second  Regiment  Band,  of  Nashua. 

FIELD   AND   STAFF. 

Col.  Elbridge  J.  Copp,  Nashua;  Lieut.  Col.  Albert  W.  Metcalf, 
Keene  ;  Maj.  Jason  E.  Tolles,  Nashua. 

William  E.  Spaulding,  Nashua,  adjutant;  George  P.  Kimball, 
Nashua,  quartermaster ;  Ash  ton  W.  Rounsevel,  Newport,  paymas- 
ter; George  W.  Flagg,  Keene,  surgeon ;  William  H.  Nute,  Farrn- 
ington,  assistant  surgeon;  George  W.  Grover,  Nashua,  chaplain. 

NON-COMMISSIONED   STAFF. 

Charles  E.  Faxon,  Nashua,  sergeant-major;  Edward  M.  Hunter, 
Newport,  quartermaster-sergeant ;  Charles  A.  Roby,  Nashua,  com- 
missary-sergeant ;  Charles  G.  Farrar,  Keene,  hospital  steward ; 
Frank  E.  Jackman,  Nashua,  drum  major;  Dana  P.  Barker,  Hills- 
borough,  color-sergeant ;  Willard  A.  Cummings,  Nashua,  band- 
master. 


20  STATUE    OF    DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

LINE   OFFICERS. 

Company   C,   Winchester :   Amos  Lawrence,   captain ;   Charles   D. 

Seaver,  first  lieutenant ;  Henry  C.  Tenney,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  I,  Nashua:   Edwin  H.  Parmenter,  captain;  Eugene  H. 

Saunders,  first  lieutenant;  Willis  H.  Goodspeed,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  F,  Farmington  :  Eugene  W.  Emerson,  captain ;  Charles  II. 

Pitman,  first  lieutenant;  Charles  W.  Leighton,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  E,  Rochester :  Isaac  D.  Piercy,  captain  ;  Fred  L.  Chesley, 

first  lieutenant ;  Horatio  L.  Gate,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  D,  Newport:  Fred  W.  Cheney,  captain;  Ira  Stowell,  first 

lieutenant ;  Bela  Nettleton,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  K,  Hillsborough :  Henry  P.  Whitaker,  captain ;  Leander 

Emery,  first  lieutenant;  Loren  E.  Nichols,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  H,  Keene :  Jerry  P.  Wellman,  captain;  Frank  Chapman, 

first  lieutenant ;  Elbridge  A.  Shaw,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  G,  Keene  :  Francis  O.  Nims,  captain  ;  Edward  P.  Kimball, 

first  lieutenant ;  Charles  W.  Starkey,  second  lieutenant. 

ARTILLERY. 

First  Battery,  of  Manchester,  Capt.  S.  S.  Piper  commanding.  Se- 
nior first  lieutenant,  Edward  H.  Currier;  junior  first  lieutenant, 
Silas  R.  Wallace ;  second  lieutenant,  John  A.  Barker. 

CAVALRY. 

Company  A,  of  Peterborough :  Ervin  H.  Smith,  captain ;   Charles 

B.  Davis,  first  lieutenant ;  James  E.  Saunders,  second  lieutenant. 

OTHER  ORGANIZATIONS,  AND  GUESTS. 
Highland  Band,  of  Lake  Village. 

AMOSKEAG  VETERANS   OF   MANCHESTER. 

Lewis  Simons,  major;  John  B.  Abbott,  adjutant;  Alfred  G.  Fair- 
banks, quartermaster;  Charles  L.  Harmon,  paymaster;  Dr.  Emil 
•  Custer,  surgeon ;  Dr.  George  D.  Towne,  assistant  surgeon ;  Rev. 

C.  W.  Heizer,  chaplain  ;  Henry  Robinson,  judge-advocate ;  Ira  A. 
Moore,  quartermaster-sergeant ;  George  E.  Hall,  sergeant-major ; 
Dr.  H.  C.  Canney,  Edward  L.  Kimball,  standard-bearers. 

Company  A :  E.  F.  Trow,  captain ;  A.  T.  Pierce,  first  lieutenant ; 

B.  F.  Clark,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  B:    Moses  Wadleigh,  captain;   David  Wadsworth,  first 

lieutenant ;  George  A.  Leighton,  second  lieutenant. 
Company  C :  Captain  Hiram  Forsaith  in  command. 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  21 

MANCHESTER  CADETS. 

F.  L.  Downs,  captain ;  G.  N.  Burpee,  first  lieutenant;  E.  T.  Knowl- 
ton,  second  lieutenant. 

THE   STAFF  OF  GOVERNOR  CURRIER. 

Maj.  Gen.  Augustus  D.  Ayling,  Concord,  adjutant-general;  Brig. 
Gen.  Elbert  Wheeler,  Nashua,  inspector-general ;  Brig.  Gen. 
Charles  Williams,  Manchester,  quartermaster-general ;  Brig.  Gen. 
George  W.  Pierce,  Winchester,  surgeon-general ;  Brig.  Gen.  Philip 
Carpenter,  Lancaster,  judge-advocate-general ;  Brig.  Gen.  Frank 
T.  Brown,  Whitefield,  commissary-general ;  Col.  Frank  E.  Kaley, 
Milford,  Col.  Hiram  H.  Dow,  Conway,  Col.  George  G.  Davis, 
Marlborough,  Col.  Alfred  A.  Collins,  Danville,  aides-de-camp. 

GOV.    CURRIER  AND   GUESTS   OF   THE   STATE   IN   CARRIAGES. 

Gov.  Moody  Currier,  of  Manchester;  Hon.  George  W.  Nesmith,  of 
Franklin;  B.  P.  Cheney,  Esq.,  of  Boston;  Rev.  Samuel  C.  Bart- 
lett,  D.  D.,  of  Hanover. 

Gen.  Gilman  Marston,  of  Exeter,  chairman  of  the  legislative  com- 
mittee ;  Gov.  George  D.  Robinson,  of  Chicopee,  Mass. ;  Hon.  John 
A.  Bingham,  of  Ohio,  ex-minister  to  Japan. 

Adjt.  Gen.  Dalton,  Lieut.  Gen.  A.  T.  Holt,  and  Col.  Whipple,  of 
Gov.  Robinson's  staff. 

Col.  Rockwell,  Col.  Currier,  and  Col.  Stearns,  of  Gov.  Robinson's 
staff. 

Gov.  Daniel  B.  Hill,  of  New  York;  W.  G.  Rice,  the  governor's  pri- 
.  vate  secretary ;  Hon.  Robert  A.  Maxwell,  superintendent  of  the 
insurance  department  of  New  York ;  Hon.  Frank  Jones,  of  Ports- 
mouth. 

Hon.  Harry  Bingham,  of  Littleton,  of  the  legislative  committee ; 
Hon.  John  Wentworth,  of  Chicago,  Hon.  William  E.  Chandler,  of 
Concord. 

Hon.  Chester  Pike,  of  Cornish,  of  the  legislative  committee ;  Gov. 
Samuel  E.  Pingree,  of  Hartford,  Vt.,  Gov.  Frederick  A.  Robie,  of 
Gorham,  Me.,  Lieut.  Gov.  Oliver  Ames,  of  North  Easton,  Mass. 

Hon.  Edgar  Aldrich,  of  Littleton,  of  the  legislative  committee ; 
Charles  C.  Coffin,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  Hon.  Charles  Levi  Woodbury, 
of  Boston,  Judge  T.  P.  Redfield,  of  the  Vermont  supreme  court. 

Hon.  Henry  O.  Kent,  of  Lancaster,  naval  officer  of  the  port  of  Bos- 
ton; Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder,  of  Boston,  ex-Gov.  Alexander  H. 
Rice,  of  Boston. 


22  STATUE    OF    DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

George  W.  Stone,  Esq.,  of  Andover,  of  the  legislative  committee; 
Hon.  George  B.  Loring,  of  Boston,  Hon.  George  A.  Bruce,  of 
Somerville,  Mass.,  B.  F.  Ayer,  Esq.,  of  Chicago. 

Hon.  W.  H.  W.  Hinds,  of  Milford,  of  the  legislative  committee ; 
Hon.  Mellen  Chamberlain,  of  Boston;  Hon.  A.  E.  Pillsbury,  pres- 
ident of  the  Massachusetts  senate;  Hon.  J.  Q.  A.  Brackett, 
speaker  of  the  Massachusetts  house  of  representatives. 

Hon.  William  H.  Chamberlain,  of  Keene,  of  the  legislative  com- 
mittee; Judge  Daniel  Clark,  of  Manchester,  Hon.  Frank  Haven, 
of  Boston. 

Hon.  John  M.  Hill,  of  Concord,  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  statue; 
John  A.  Fox,  of  Boston,  architect  of  the  pedestal ;  Gilman  Cheney 
and  son,  of  Montreal,  brother  of  the  donor  of  the  statue. 

Ex-U.  S.  Senator  Edward  H.  Rollins,  of  Concord;  Gen.  E.  G.  Gra- 
ham, United  States  Army;  Hon.  J.  G.  Blake,  M.  D.,  of  Boston. 

Ex-U.  S.  Senator  James  W.  Patterson,  of  Hanover,  Hon.  Charles 
Theodore  Russell,  of  Boston,  Hon.  Roland  G.  Usher,  of  Concord, 
Mass.,  Hon.  A.  R.  Brown,  of  Boston. 

Hon.  George  A.  Marden,  of  Lowell,  Mass. ;  Hon.  Peter  Butler, 
assistant  U.  S.  treasurer  at  Boston;  Hon.  E.  A.  Kingsbury,  of  the 
Massachusetts  house  of  representatives. 

Hon.  E.  J.  Sherman,  attorney -general  of  Massachusetts;  Hon.  Dan- 
iel S.  Richardson,  of  Lowell,  Hon.  Isaac  Bradford,  of  Boston,  Rev. 
T.  B.  Lambert,  D.  D.,  chaplain  United  States  Navy. 

Hon.  Edgar  H.  Woodman,  mayor  of  Concord;  Hon.  Hugh  O'Brien, 
mayor  of  Boston  ;  Hon.  Frank  Burns,  mayor  of  Somerville,  Mass. ; 
Hon.  Peter  B.  Olney,  of  Boston. 

Judge  Edward  Bennett,  of  Boston,  W.  C.  Shepard,  of  North  Scitu- 
ate,  Mass.,  Hon.  N.  S.  Wheeler,  of  Boston ;  Hon.  Stephen  M. 
Allen,  of  Boston,  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society  of  Boston. 

Hon.  Henry  B.  Pierce,  secretary  of  state  of  Massachusetts;  Hon. 
A.  A.  Folsom,  of  Boston,  superintendent  of  the  Boston  &  Provi- 
dence Railroad  ;  Nathaniel  W.  Ladd,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  secretary  of 
the  Webster  Historical  Society ;  Rev.  William  C.  Winslow,  histo- 
riographer of  that  society. 

Hon.  G.  H.  Burleigh,  of  Boston,  N.  Stafford,  of  Boston,  Hon.  Edwin 
Tuck,  of  Lowell;  Hon.  Luther  R.  Marsh,  president  of  the  New 
York  park  commission  and  Webster's  New  York  law  partner ;  Hon. 
Edwin  T.  Thomas,  of  Boston. 

Ex-Gov.  Berry,  of  Bristol,  and  ex-Govs.  Frederick  Smyth,  James  A. 
Weston,  and  Person  C.  Cheney,  of  Manchester. 

Ex-Govs.  Benjamin  F.  Prescott,  of  Epping,  and  Samuel  W.  Hale,  of 
Keene,  ex-U.  S.  Senator  Bainbridge  Wadleigh. 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  23 

Hon.  W.  H.  H.  Allen,  of  Claremont,  Hon.  Isaac  W.  Smith,  of  Man- 
chester, Hon.  Lewis  W.  Clark,  of  Manchester,  and  Hon.  A.  P. 
Carpenter,  of  Concord,  judges  of  the  supreme  court. 

Hon.  Isaac  N.  Blodgett,  of  Franklin,  and  Hon.  George  A.  Bingham, 
of  Littleton,  judges  of  the  supreme  court;  Hon.  Jonathan  E.  Sar- 
gent, of  Concord,  and  Hon.  Jeremiah  Smith,  of  Dover,  ex-judges 
of  the  supreme  court. 

Hon.  William  L.  Foster,  of  Concord,  Hon.  Charles  R.  Morrison,  of 
Manchester,  Hon.  Charles  W.  Woodman,  of  Dover,  and  Hon. 
William  S.  Ladd,  of  Lancaster,  ex-judges  of  the  supreme  court. 

Ex-Congressmen  Daniel  Marcy,  of  Portsmouth,  Ellery  A.  Hibbard, 
of  Laconia,  James  F.  Briggs,  of  Manchester,  Joshua  G.  Hall,  of 
Dover. 

Congressman  Martin  A.  Haynes,  of  Lake  Village  ;  ex-Congressmen 
Aaron  F.  Stevens,  of  Nashua,  Samuel  N.  Bell,  of  Manchester, 
Mason  W.  Tappan,  of  Bradford. 

Ex-Congressmen  Ossian  Ray  and  Jacob  Benton,  of  Lancaster;  Hon. 
John  G.  Sinclair,  of  Orlando,  Fla.,  Hon.  Frank  A.  McKean,  of 
Nashua. 

Col.  Martin  V.  B.  Edgerly,  of  Manchester,  Hon.  Charles  W.  Talpey, 
of  Farmington,  Hon.  Mortier  L.  Morrison,  of  Peterborough,  Hon. 
Peter  Upton,  of  Jaffrey,  Hon.  John  W.  Jewell,  of  Strafford,  mem- 
bers of  Gov.  Currier's  council. 


THE   UNVEILING. 

THE  Manchester  Cadets  marched  up  the  entrance  path, 
followed  by  the  Highland  Band  and  Amoskeag  Veterans, 
and  formed  on  either  side  of  the  walk.  To  the  strains  of 
"Hail to  the  Chief"  the  procession  marched  through  the 
ranks,  led  by  Governor  Currier,  who  was  followed  by  the 
orator  of  the  day  and  distinguished  guests.  They  were 
greeted  with  applause  and  cheers  by  the  audience,  which 
by  this  time  filled  the  grand  stand,  the  state-house  park, 
and  adjoining  streets  as  far  as  could  be  seen  from  the 
speakers'  stand. 

At  two  o'clock  P.  M.  the  assembly  was  called  to  order 


24  STATUE    OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

by  Gen.    Oilman   Marston,   chairman  of  the  legislative 
committee,  who  announced  the  following 

OFFICERS   OF  THE   DAY. 

President.  —  Hon.  George  W.  Nesmith,  of  Franklin. 

Vice-Presidents.  —  Gen.  Gilinan  Marston,  of  Exeter,  and  Hon. 
Harry  Bingham,  of  Littleton. 

Secretaries.  —  Hon.  Henry  O.  Kent,  of  Lancaster,  and  George  W. 
Stone,  Esq.,  of  Andover. 

General  Marston  then  requested  all  present  to  observe 
silence  while  prayer  was  being  offered. 

Prayer  by  Rt.  Rev.  William  W.  Niles,  D.  D.,  Bishop 
of  the  Diocese  of  New  Hampshire  :  — 

Our  Father,  who  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  thy  name.  Thy 
kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven.  Give 
us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  And  forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we 
forgive  those  who  trespass  against  us.  And  lead  us  not  into  temp- 
tation, but  deliver  us  from  evil ;  for  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and 
the  power,  and  the  glory,  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen. 

Almighty  God,  who  in  the  former  time  leddest  our  fathers  forth 
into  a  wealthy  place,  and  didst  set  their  feet  in  a  large  room,  give 
thy  grace,  we  humbly  beseech  thee,  to  us,  their  children,  that  we 
may  alwaj-s  approve  ourselves  a  people  mindful  of  thy  favor  and 
glad  to  do  thy  will.  Bless  our  land  with  honorable  industry,  sound 
learning,  and  pure  manners.  Defend  our  liberties,  preserve  our 
unity.  Save  us  from  violence,  discord,  and  confusion,  from  pride 
and  arrogancy,  and  from  every  evil  way.  Incline  the  hearts  of  em- 
ployers and  of  those  whom  they  employ  to  mutual  forbearance,  fair- 
ness, and  good  will.  Fashion  into  one  happy  people  the  multitudes 
brought  hither,  of  many  kindreds  and  tongues.  Endue  with  the 
spirit  of  wisdom  those  whom  we  intrust  in  thy  name  with  the  author- 
ity of  governance,  to  the  end  that  there  be  peace  at  home,  and  that 
we  keep  our  place  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  In  the  time  of 
prosperity  temper  our  self-confidence  with  thankfulness,  and  in  the 
day  of  trouble  suffer  not  our  trust  in  thee  to  fail. 

In  particular  we  invoke  thine  especial  blessing  upon  this  state  in 
which  we  dwell,  and  upon  the  people  thereof,  with  the  civil  authori- 
ties and  upon  all  those  likewise  who  have  gone  forth  from  these  their 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  25 

homes.  Imbue  us  with  a  spirit  of  loyalty  and  of  love.  Give  unto 
us  high  aims  and  a  generous  mind,  that  we  may  seek  ever  the  best 
things,  and  may  study  the  common  weal.  To  the  college  of  this 
state,  and  to  all  schools  of  good  learning  among  us,  grant  thine  espe- 
cial blessing.  Deepen  in  all  our  hearts  a  loving  interest  in  their 
work.  Do  thou,  O  our  God,  and  our  fathers'  God,  without  whom 
nothing  is  strong,  nothing  is  holy,  strengthen  these  schools  of  sound 
learning.  And  establish  them,  and  build  them  up,  and  make  their 
usefulness  to  be  increased  to  many  generations.  Help  thou  the  help- 
less. Strengthen  with  thy  Spirit  those  who  labor  for  the  sick,  for  the 
orphans,  and  the  poor ;  and  grant  to  every  work  of  mercy  an  even 
course.  Reward  thou  those  who  have  done  or  designed  us  good ; 
and  accept  our  united  thanksgiving  for  the  devising  of  him  whose 
thought  has  given  us  the  gathering  of  this  day.  Stir  up  everywhere 
the  wills  of  thy  faithful  people,  that  they  may  plenteously  bring 
forth  the  fruit  of  good  works,  to  the  beautifying  of  this  state,  and 
for  the  welfare  of  the  people,  for  the  brightening  of  their  lives  arid 
the  lightening  of  their  toil. 

And  all  praise  shall  be  rendered  unto  thee,  the  Father  of  us  all, 
in  Jesus  Christ  thy  Son.  For  the  kingdom  is  thine,  and  thine  is  the 
power,  and  thine  is  the  glory.  And  now  in  humble  and  devout  com- 
memoration of  the  great  gifts  and  the  great  work  of  the  man  whose 
name  has  brought  us  hither,  and  who  now  rests  from  his  labors,  we 
commit  ourselves  unto  thy  gracious  care  and  protection  and  guidance 
for  this  day.  The  Lord  bless  us  and  keep  us.  The  Lord  make  his 
face  to  shine  upon  us,  and  be  gracious  unto  us.  The  Lord  lift  up 
his  countenance  upon  us  and  give  us  peace,  both  now  and  evermore. 
Amen. 

Judge  Nesmith  was  then  introduced  as  friend  and 
long-time  companion  of  Daniel  Webster.  He  was  re- 
ceived with  long-continued  applause,  and  spoke  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

PRESIDENT  NESMITH'S  ADDRESS. 

Fellow  Citizens,  —  I  thank  a  kind  Providence  who  has  permitted 
vis  to  participate  in  the  ceremonies  of  this  interesting  occasion.  Such 
ability  and  strength  as  I  have  I  tender  to  your  service.  Believing 
that  I  shall  not  be  able  to  encounter  the  fatigue  incident  to  my  office 
for  the  whole  day,  I  shall  ask  to  be  relieved  at  the  proper  hour. 

I  bid  a  hearty  and  most  cordial  welcome  to  this  great  assemblage 
of  people,  gathered  not  only  from  the  native  and  adopted  states  of 


26  STATUE    OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

Daniel  Webster,  but  from  all  parts  of  our  Union.  My  present  exhor- 
tation to  all  here  is,  that  in  order  to  hear  much  and  see  more,  you 
must  now  exercise  much  patience,  long-suffering,  and  brother]}' 
kindness  towards  each  other,  and  thus  be  able  to  preserve  good 
order.  Our  accommodations  may  not  be  all  you  desire,  because  of 
your  great  numbers. 

Permit  me  at  the  outset  to  say,  that  one  of  our  first  duties  will  be 
discharged  when  this  elegant  statue  of  Mr.  Webster  now  standing 
before  us  shall  be  unveiled,  and  exposed  to  the  public  view.  Nearly 
thirty-four  years  have  elapsed  since  the  death  of  Mr.  Webster. 
Death  has  thinned  the  ranks  of  those  who  used  to  listen  to  his  voice 
in  the  public  assemblies  or  counsels  of  our  nation,  or  had  opportu- 
nity to  enjoy  with  him  the  friendly,  social  intercoui'se  of  private  life. 
I  first  saw  him  in  Hanover,  in  1819,  but  first  took  him  by  the  hand 
in  1825,  when  introduced  by  his  brother  Ezekiel.  It  was  soon  after 
that  my  more  intimate  relations  commenced.  Still  I  am  happy  to 
be  able  to  state  that  there  are  those  present,  and  among  them  our 
orator,  who  have  had  the  means  and  opportunity  of  knowing  the 
character  of  Mr.  Webster,  the  early  struggles  of  his  life  which  he 
encountered  and  overcame,  his  steady  but  rapid  progress  to  high 
eminence  and  honest  fame.  These  men,  we  trust,  will  have  the 
opportunity  and  the  disposition  to  instruct  us  on  this  occasion. 

I  indulge  the  belief  with  great  confidence  that  we  now  have  before 
us  such  a  resemblance  in  bronze  of  the  great  original  man  when  liv- 
ing, as  may  justly  be  pronounced  more  perfect  in  design,  execution, 
and  artistic  skill  than  any  other  statue  heretofore  produced  by  that 
eminent  artist,  Thomas  Ball,  and  seldom  exceeded  by  any  other 
artist.  The  pedestal  on  which  the  statue  stands  has  been  largely 
planned  and  finished  under  the  critical  eye  of  Mr.  John  A.  Fox,  of 
Boston.  Much  credit  is  due  to  his  executive  ability,  correct  taste, 
and  sound  judgment. 

The  legislature  of  this  state  freely  granted  land  sufficient  for  the 
location  of  the  monument  in  this  state-house  park,  imposing  upon 
the  governor  and  his  councilors  the  duty  of  designating  the  precise 
spot  where  it  should  be  located.  This  duty  has  been  dischai'ged  by 
the  governor  and  council. 

Now  I  rejoice  that  the  time  has  arrived  when  our  worthy  friend 
and  your  benefactor,  Benjamin  Pierce  Cheney,  of  Boston,  a  native 
of  New  Hampshire,  will  unveil  this  beautiful  statue,  and  expose  it 
to  the  public  view,  and  then  in  due  form  present  it  with  its  appen- 
dages to  the  state  of  New  Hampshire.  I  rejoice  that  his  life  has 
been  so  prolonged  as  to  enable  him  to  perform  this  service  so  honor- 
able to  him,  so  acceptable  to  this  state,  and  that  he  has  had  the 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  27 

opportunity  and  means  to  execute  his  purpose,  long  since  entertained, 
to  erect  a  monument  here,  destined  to  perpetuate  the  name  and  fame 
of  Daniel  Webster  far  down  into  the  future  ages. 

Monuments  become  valuable  when  they  are  well  earned  arid  well 
deserved,  either  by  distinguished  and  meritorious  services,  or  by  the 
successful  achievement  of  victory  in  some  of  the  great  struggles 
encountered  in  human  life.  Has  Daniel  Webster  ever  earned  this 
monument  ?  It  is  the  written  opinion  of  ex-President  John  Adams 
that  Daniel  Webster  had  earned  a  monument  more  enduring  than 
brass  by  producing  his  celebrated  oration  delivered  at  Plymouth, 
Mass.,  on  the  20th  of  December,  1820.  When  Mr.  Webster  had 
presented  a  copy  of  that  oration  to  Mr.  Adams  in  December,  1821, 
Mr.  Adams  returned  to  him  a  very  flattering  and  complimentary 
letter,  in  which  he  expressed  his  thanks  for  that  great  production, 
and  in  enthusiastic  terms  alleged  that  it  ought  to  be  read  at  the  end 
of  every  year  forever,  and  then  in  the  triumphant  language  of  Hor- 
ace he  exclaims,  "  Exegisti  monumentum  cere  per enmits,"  "Thou 
hast  erected  a  monument  more  durable  than  brass."  The  language 
of  Chancellor  Kent  of  New  York  was  alike  complimentary.  (See 
Curtis's  Biography,  Vol.  I.,  p.  194.) 

So  when  ancient  Greece  was  at  the  zenith  of  her  glory  in  arts  and 
arms,  and  Phidias  and  Praxiteles  and  others  were  hewing  out  their 
monuments  in  honor  of  their  own  distinguished  men,  and  when  the 
eminent  dramatist  Euripides  requested  one  for  himself,  the  reply 
came,  "O  Euripides!  Thou  dost  not  need  a  monument,  but  the 
monument  needs  thy  name." 

So  in  either  case,  we  now  require  the  monument,  whether  it  be 
erected  to  commemorate  the  famous  deeds  of  a  great  man,  or 
whether  such  deeds  are  required  to  make  the  monument  famous. 

The  statue  was  then  unveiled  by  Miss  Annie,  daughter 
of  Col.  John  H.  George,  and  was  greeted  with  cheers  by 
the  immense  throng.  It  was  then  presented  to  the  state 
by  B.  P.  Cheney,  Esq.,  who  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  CHENEY'S  ADDRESS. 

Your  Excellency,  —  I  am  happy  at  the  fulfillment  of  an  intention 
which  I  have  long  cherished,  of  presenting  to  my  native  state  a 
statue  of  Daniel  Webster.  T  trust  that  it  may  be  received  by  you,  in 
behalf  of  the  people  whose  political  rights  are  intrusted  to  your  care, 
as  an  appropriate  tribute  to  the  memory  of  a  son  of  New  Hampshire, 


28  STATUE    OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

who  as  a  patriot  was  unexcelled,  and  as  an  orator  and  statesman 
was  without  a  peer. 

I  now  deliver  to  your  Excellency  the  conveyance  of  the  statue  to 
the  state,  executed  by  the  trustees  having  the  matter  in  charge. 

He  then  delivered  the  following  deed  to  Gov.  Currier:  — 

THE   DEED   TO   THE   STATE. 

By  virtue  of  a  deed  of  trust,  a  copy  of  which  is  hereto  annexed,* 
executed  by  and  between  Benjamin  Pierce  Cheney  and  the  trustees 
therein  named,  dated  February  13,  1885,  the  undersigned,  as  such 
trustees,  hereby  convey  to  the  state  of  New  Hampshire  the  bronze 
statue  of  Daniel  Webster  this  day  dedicated  in  the  state-house 
grounds,  in  Concord,  subject  to  all  the  provisions  of  said  deed  of 

trust.  /&•        i\ 

GEORGE  W.  NESMITH, 

JOHN  M.  HILL, 
JOHN  H.  GEORGE. 

Witness:  BENJAMIN  PIERCE  CHENEY. 
Dated  Concord,  N.  H.,  June  17,  1886. 

In  behalf  of  the  state,  Gov.  Currier  replied  as  follows  : 

GOV.  CURRIER'S  ADDRESS  OF  ACCEPTANCE. 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow  Citizens,  —  On  this  anniversary  of  the 
first  great  battle  of  the  American  Revolution,  we  meet  to  dedicate 
this  beautiful  statue  to  the  memory  of  New  Hampshire's  greatest 
and  most  distinguished  son,  the  peerless  orator,  the  unrivaled  states- 
man, the  great  expounder  of  our  national  constitution.  Nations 
have  erected  monuments  of  stone  and  of  brass  to  represent  the  ma- 
terial forms  of  their  gods  and  their  heroes ;  they  have  dedicated 
statues  to  the  memory  of  their  statesmen  and  their  patriots  ;  but  such 
lifeless  effigies  can  add  little  to  the  fame  and  renown  of  Daniel 
Webster.  Thej'  may  preserve  to  coming  generations  the  outward 
lineaments  which  genius  and  intellect  impressed  upon  his  living 
countenance,  but  that  greatness  of  soul,  that  divine  energy  within, 
which  lives  and  thinks  and  acts,  cannot  be  imparted  to  lifeless  stone 
and  bronze  ;  it  can  never  perish  ;  it  lives  on  ;  it  will  exist  in  the  life 
of  the  future ;  it  will  be  enshrined  in  eloquence  and  song  to  inspire 
the  great  and  the  good  in  all  lands  and  in  all  times. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Trustees,  as  the  official  repre- 

*  See  page  9. 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  29 

sentative  of  our  state  I  accept  this  memorial  statue,  representing  the 
outward  form  and  features  of  one  whom  we  have  always  been  proud 
to  call  our  own,  one  whom  our  people  have  ever  been  delighted  to 
honor,  one  whose  eloquence  and  statesmanship  have  given  fame  and 
glory  to  our  state.  This  wonderful  creation  of  art  now  stands 
unveiled  before  us,  so  noble,  so  majestic,  so  lifelike,  that  these  iron  ' 
limbs  almost  seem  to  move,  these  brazen  lips  to  utter  forth  such 
words  of  fire  and  patriotism  as  courts  and  senates  have  listened  to 
with  wonder  and  admiration.  And  now,  Mr.  President,  in  the  name 
of  all  the  people  of  New  Hampshire,  I  wish  to  thank  the  generous 
donor  for  this  great  and  noble  gift  to  our  state,  to  our  nation,  and 
to  the  world. 

Honored  and  distinguished  Sir,  your  own  great  success  in  life  illus- 
trates the  grand  possibilities  that  lie  open  before  the  young  men  of 
our  state  and  nation ;  your  generosity  is  already  known  to  fame ; 
your  great  benefaction  to  our  venerable  institution  of  learning  has 
rendered  your  name  blessed  among  all  our  people ;  this  renewed 
liberality  will  be  received  by  them  with  a  gratitude  and  thankfulness 
which  no  words  can  express.  We  have  accepted  from  your  hands 
this  heroic  image  of  our  great  statesman,  and  here,  in  his  own  native 
state,  and  in  yours,  too,  sir,  beneath  the  shadow  of  our  capitol,  on  a 
foundation  of  granite,  have  placed  it  as  an  enduring  memorial  of  the 
man  whose  living  form  and  features  you  and  we  wish  to  perpetuate. 
On  this  monument,  inscribed  in  letters  of  bronze,  your  name,  asso- 
ciated with  the  great  name  of  Daniel  Webster,  will  go  down  to 
posterity  honored  and  revered. 

Mr.  President,  the  great  nations  and  empires  of  antiquity  have 
passed  away ;  their  cities  and  temples  have  disappeared  from  the 
earth  and  been  forgotten ;  and  should  the  day  ever  come  when  these 
walls  of  our  capitol  shall  fall  asunder,  when  this  granite  foundation 
shall  crumble  into  dust,  and  this  brazen  statue,  worn  away  by  the 
wasting  elements,  shall  fall  to  the  earth  and  disappear,  we  may  hope 
and  believe  that  the  fame  and  renown  of  Daniel  Webster  will  still 
be  remembered  and  held  sacred  by  the  world. 

Before  Governor  Currier  had  concluded,  the  rain, 
which  had  been  threatening,  began  to  fall,  and  hundreds 
left  the  grounds  to  seek  protection.  Notwithstanding  the 
rain,  Dr.  Bartlett  was  introduced,  and  delivered  the  ora- 
tion of  the  day,  sheltered  by  an  umbrella  held  by  one  of 
the  special  policemen. 


30  STATUE   OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

ORATION   OF   SAMUEL  COLCORD   HARTLETT,    D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow  Citizens,  —  Daniel  Webster  comes  home 
to-day  to  the  heart  of  his  native  state.  A  loyal  son  of  this  com- 
monwealth, distinguished  already  by  his  noble  benefaction  to  its 
chief  literary  institution,  presents  to  his  fellow  citizens  this  lasting 
and  admirable  memorial  of  the  most  illustrious  graduate  of  that 
college,  and  the  greatest  of  the  sons  of  New  Hampshire.  All  honor 
to  the  man  who,  having  by  his  own  indefatigable  toil  and  skill 
acquired  the  means,  has  also  had  the  mind  to  appreciate  and  the 
heart  to  commemorate  thus  the  mighty  dead.  The  thanks  of  every 
native  and  every  resident  of  the  state  are  due  to-day  to  Benjamin 
Pierce  Cheney. 

And  while  we  thank  the  giver,  we  are  here  to  receive  the  gift. 
We  have  come,  some  indeed  from  neighboring  commonwealths  and 
distant  points,  but  chiefly  from  the  state  of  Webster's  nativity,  — 
from  its  legislative  halls  and  offices  of  state,  its  literary  institutions, 
its  professional  employments,  its  business  affairs,  the  mill,  the  shop, 
the  farm,  and  the  home,  from  the  banks  of  the  Piscataqua,  the  Mer- 
rimack,  and  the  Connecticut,  the  borders  of  its  lakes,  and  the  shad- 
ows of  its  great  mountains,  to  do  honor  once  more  to  an  imperish- 
able memory.  For  though  his  death  was  lamented  in  whole  volumes 
of  eulogies  from  the  most  eloquent  divines  and  the  ablest  statesmen 
in  all  parts  of  the  Union,  though  such  men  as  Cass,  and  Seward, 
and  Preston,  and  Everett,  and  Winthrop,  and  Evarts,  and  Choate, 
and  Bayard  have  brought  their  exhaustive  tiibutes  to  his  greatness, 
we  feel  that  there  yet  remains  something  for  us  to  do  and  to  say. 

For  here  we  stand  in  the  very  center  of  his  earlier  sphere  of  life 
and  labor,  the  home  of  his  birth,  his  growth,  and  his  maturity.  On 
eveiy  side  are  the  places  which  will  be  forever  associated  with  his 
name  and  history.  A  few  miles  to  the  north  of  us  still  waves  the 
old  elm  that  swung  near  his  cradle,  and  still  sparkles  the  water  of 
the  well  that  quenched  the  thirst  of  his  childhood's  sports  and  of  his 
manhood's  pilgrimages.  Not  far  from  thence,  northwesterly,  rises 
the  high  hill,  with  faint  traces  of  a  church  —  "  Searle's  Hill "  or 
"Meeting-house  Hill,"  —  up  which  he  was  borne  by  his  stalwart 
father  in  the  first  year  of  his  life,  for  baptism.  A  few  miles  beyond, 
in  Andover,  is  the  place  where,  in  the  last  year  of  his  life,  he  wept 
and  prayed  with  old  John  Colby.  In  the  opposite  direction,  down 
by  the  Merrimack,  lies  the  "Elms  Farm  "  of  his  boyhood's  and  his 
manhood's  love  ;  where  at  the  age  of  eight  he  first  read  the  constitu- 
tion, printed  011  a  cotton  handkerchief ;  where  were  held  the  counsel- 
ings  and  the  strugglings  for  his  and  his  brother's  education  ;  whence 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  31 

he  set  forth  for  college  with  his  books  and  clothing  slung  on  horse- 
back ;  whither  he  returned  to  begin  the  study  of  law ;  where  he 
composed,  sitting  on  a  rock,  one  of  his  first  public  orations,  and 
wrote,  half  a  century  later,  the  famous  Hiilsemann  letter ;  whither 
he  sent  his  humorous  epistles  to  John  Taylor;  where,  in  his  maturity 
and  fame,  he  was  wont  to  welcome  his  friends  of  both  parties  and 
of  every  degree ;  and  where  he  diffused  around  him  till  his  death  all 
the  genial  kindnesses  of  a  neighborly,  a  friendly,  and  a  benevolenf 
heart.  Back  again,  among  the  hills  of  Salisbury,  in  sight  of  old 
Kearsarge,  is  the  church  in  which,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  he 
stood  alone  before  the  congregation  to  profess  his  Christian  faith, 
and  where  in  later  years  I  saw  him  sit  a  reverent  worshiper,  join- 
ing the  sacred  song  with  his  burly  voice,  —  hard  by  the  spot  where 
a  vision  of  loveliness  first  dawned  upon  his  sight,  and  just  across 
the  way  from  the  house  in  which  his  lot  was  united  with  that  of  the 
Grace  Fletcher,  whose  name,  to  the  end  of  his  days,  he  "  could  not 
write  without  tears.1'  Not  quite  half  way  from  that  place  to  this  is 
the  mansion  of  Dr.  Wood,  where  he  learned  in  part  his  first  Latin 
and  all  his  first  Greek.  Still  nearer  is  the  plain  of  Boscawen,  on 
which  he  opened  his  office  for  the  practice  of  the  law ;  and  in  the 
tower  of  its  academy  swings  the  bell  that  still  sounds  forth  the 
generosity  of  his  prime.  In  the  adjoining  town  of  Hopkinton  his 
father  heard  his  first  argument  in  court,  and  was  satisfied.  Two 
hours  away,  as  we  now  travel  it,  to  the  northwest  of  us,  is  the  col- 
lege that  molded  his  young  titanic  powers,  whose  diploma,  what- 
ever others  may  foolishly  repeat,  he  did  not  tear  in  pieces,  but 
gracefully  accepted,  —  a  college  that  throughout  his  life  he  loved 
and  cherished.  Not  quite  so  far  away,  southeasterly,  is  the  fitting 
school  at  which  he  felt  the  kind  influence  of  the  polished  Buckmin- 
ster.  A  little  beyond  is  the  home  for  years  of  his  early  manhood, 
where  he  matched  his  strength  with  that  prince  of  lawyers,  Jeremiah 
Mason,  and  from  which  he  was  first  sent  to  the  councils  of  the  nation. 
The  place  of  our  assembling  to-day  once  knew  him  well.  During 
his  early  practice  of  the  law,  his  face  was  a  familiar  sight  upon  these 
streets,  and  the  old  mansion  of  the  Rents  received  him  long  and 
often  as  a  guest.  He  has  listened  to  the  debates  in  this  legislative 
hall;  and  in  the  former  North  church,  the  old  Phenix  hall,  and  a 
great  pavilion  on  School-street  common  —  all  passed  away  —  his 
voice  has  been  heard  by  the  citizens  of  Concord. 

It  Avas  not  until  the  early  prime  of  his  manhood,  the  mature  age 
of  thirty-four,  that  he  left  the  scenes  so  incorporated  with  his  earlier 
history  and  so  embedded  in  his  latest  recollections,  to  become  the 
master  spirit  of  a  sister  state,  the  stalwart  champion  of  New  Eng- 


32  STATUE   OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

land,  a  leader  in  the  Republic,  and  a  power  in  the  world.  He  was 
in  the  opening  fullness  of  his  strength.  He  had  laid  down  the  prin- 
ciples of  public  policy  that  governed  his  life.  He  had  measured  his 
strength  with  the  keenest  of  legal  intellects.  He  had  been  heard  in 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  He  had  made  his  mark  in 
Congress  by  the  breadth  and  clearness  of  his  views,  the  mingled 
firmness  and  temperance  of  his  positions,  and  the  forensic  power 
with  which  he  maintained  them.  The  great  Chief-Justice  Marshall 
had  foretold  that  "  he  would  become  one  of  the  first  statesmen  in 
America,  and  perhaps  the  very  first." 

Trained  thus  in  every  motion  and  toughened  in  every  fiber  of  his 
intellect,  he  stepped  forth  upon  the  great  arena  "  like  a  strong  man 
to  run  a  race."  He  was  made  and  molded  for  victory.  His  very 
physique  was  the  organ  and  symbol  of  an  intellectual  athlete.  What 
a  statue  he  was  in  repose.  In  speech,  what  an  incai'nation  of  kindled 
thought  and  ponderous  power.  Though  his  townsman  by  birth,  I 
saw  him  but  three  times  in  my  life,  but  the  vision  can  never  pass 
away :  once  on  the  highway,  as  he  rode  home  from  the  Dartmouth 
Commencement  with  his  brother  Ezekiel  by  his  side,  and  they  seemed 
"  duofulmina  belli  "  ;  again  in  the  little  church  from  which  his  mem- 
bership was  never  removed,  as  I  looked  timidly  from  the  pulpit  upon 
his  face  in  the  pew,  and  he  looked  up  so  kindly  and  listened  so  attent- 
ively to  the  youthful  preacher ;  and  once  more  when  on  the  slope  of 
Bunker  Hill  thirty  thousand  of  us  listened  to  his  words,  and  he 
seemed  like  the  finished  granite  shaft  that  rose  above  us  all.  Three 
times  only,  but  a  life-long  memory.  That  powerful  frame,  clad, 
when  he  spoke,  in  continental  colors,  that  massive  head,  those  deep 
flashing  eyes,  that  penetrating  voice  that  could  ring  out  like  a  trum- 
pet or  strike  like  a  cannon  ball,  are  never  to  be  forgotten.  In  his 
young  manhood  he  was  to  Judge  Richard  Fletcher  "  the  most  majes- 
tic form  and  the  noblest  countenance  on  which  he  had  ever  looked  "  ; 
and,  after  his  death,  to  Theodore  Parker,  "  the  grandest  figure  in 
Christendom  since  Charlemagne."  Thorwaldsen,  the  sculptor, 
thought  his  bust  in  a  studio  was  not  that  of  a  living  man,  but  of  an 
ancient  Jupiter.  Thomas  Carlyle,  that  prince  of  carpers,  saw  him 
once  at  a  breakfast,  and  wrote  of  him,  "He  is  a  magnificent  speci- 
men. As  a  logic  fencer,  advocate,  or  parliamentary  Hercules,  one 
would  incline  to  back  him  at  first  sight  against  all  the  extant  world. 
That  tanned  complexion,  that  amorphous,  crag-like  face,  the  dull 
black  eyes  under  the  precipice  of  brows,  like  dull  anthracite  fur- 
naces, waiting  only  to  be  blown,  the  mastiff  mouth  accurately 
closed,  —  I  have  not  traced  so  much  silent  Berserker  rage,  that  I 
remember  of,  in  any  other  man." 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  33 

Corresponding  to  this  noble  completeness  of  physical  manhood 
was  the  rounded  greatness  of  his  intellect  and  character.  It  was  a 
fullness  that  filled  many  spheres.  Wherever  he  moved  there  was 
momentum  in  the  motion ;  wherever  he  stood,  he  stood  intrenched 
and  strong.  Farming  or  fishing,  in  sport  or  in  soberness,  writing 
social  letters  or  state  papers,  ai'guing  the  law,  questioning  a  witness, 
or  addressing  a  jury,  —  in  the  senate,  on  the  platform,  in  the  home 
circle,  in  conflict,  in  friendship  or  in  love,  there  was  the  same  full- 
ness of  outflow,  and  the  same  fullness  of  reserve. 

A  generation  has  elapsed  since  his  death.  Political  and  personal 
animosities  have  passed  to  the  tomb.  The  smoke  and  dust  of  con- 
flict have  cleared  away.  As  we  now  look  back  upon  the  scene  of 
half  a  century  ago,  brilliant  with  great  names  at  the  bar,  on  the 
bench,  in  the  cabinet  and  the  forum,  as  we  gaze  on  those  struggles 
and  often  battles  of  the  giants,  there  stands  out  on  that  arena  no 
figure  more  colossal  than  Daniel  Webster ;  and  as  the  very  great- 
ness of  his  services  would  render  it  impossible  adequately  to  portray 
them  on  this  occasion,  so  does  their  conspicuousness  render  it  un- 
necessary. The  place  he  holds  in  the  annals  of  the  first  half  of  this 
century  is  no  longer  a  question  for  argument ;  it  is  a  verdict  of  his- 
tory. It  is  therefore  my  function  to-day  not  to  make  that  argument, 
but  to  report  that  verdict. 

It  was  as  a  lawyer  that  he  first  rose  rapidly  to  eminence.  His 
skill  in  extracting  the  truth  from  a  witness  was  singular,  and  some- 
times, as  with  Bramble  and  Goodrich,  almost  magical.  His  power 
of  grasping  a  case  by  its  strong  points  was  equaled  only  by  his 
ability  to  array  the  law  in  their  support,  the  clearness  of  his  presen- 
tation to  the  court,  and  the  impressiveness  of  his  address  to  the  jury. 
He  seemed  like  some  great  commander,  throwing  out  his  scouts  and 
skirmish  lines,  seizing  the  strongholds,  training  his  great  batteries, 
pushing  forward  the  heavy  battalions,  and  then  hurling  his  cavalry 
upon  the  center  of  the  foe.  Many  of  his  arguments,  as  in  the  case 
of  Dartmouth  College,  of  Gibbons  vs.  Ogden,  and  of  the  United 
States  against  McCulloch,  will  live  on  in  the  records  of  the  courts ; 
others,  as  in  the  trial  of  the  Knapps,  and  the  testing  of  the  Girard 
will,  will  live  on  in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  Matched  in  the  courts 
against  Mason,  Dexter,  Choate,  Emmet,  Wirt,  Binney,  Clay,  Pink- 
ney,  Livingston,  it  was  among  such  antagonists  that  he  won  his 
laurels.  Chief-Justice  Marshall  listened  deferentially  to  his  opin- 
ions, and  sometimes  incorporated  them  almost  verbally  in  his  deci- 
sions. It  was  Charles  O'Conor  who  said:  "At  anytime  within  a 
quarter  of  a  century  preceding  his  departure  from  among  us,  had  it 
been  inquired  at  any  place  inhabited  by  civilized  men,  who  was  the 
3 


34  STATUE  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

greatest  lawyer  in  America,  his  name  would  have  been  the  ready 
response."  It  was  William  H.  Seward  who  declared  in  the  senate 
of  the  United  States  :  "  Whatever  else  concerning  him  has  been  con- 
troverted by  anybody,  the  fifty  thousand  lawyers  of  the  United  States, 
interested  to  deny  his  pretensions,  conceded  to  him  an  unapproach- 
able supremacy  at  the  bar."  Not  so  much  the  supremacy  of  techni- 
cal legal  lore,  —  in  which,  no  doubt,  others  may  have  equaled  or 
excelled  him,  —  as  in  that  mastery  of  the  undei'lying  legal  principles, 
which  enabled  him  to  find  and  to  wield  at  will  all  the  resources  of 
the  law  that  bore  upon  his  point,  and  which  made  him  moi'e  than  a 
mere  lawyer,  —  a  profound  jurist  and  a  powerful  advocate.  For  it 
is  Ilufus  Choate  who  affirms  :  "I  shall  submit  it  to  the  judgment  of 
the  universal  American  bar,  if  a  carefully  prepared  opinion  of  Mr. 
Webster  on  any  question  of  law  whatever  in  the  whole  range  of 
jurisprudence  would  not  be  accepted  everywhere  as  of  the  most 
commanding  authority,  and  as  the  highest  evidence  of  legal  truth. 
I  submit  it  to  the  same  judgment  if,  for  many  years  before  his  death, 
they  would  not  rather  have  chosen  to  intrust  the  maintenance  and 
enforcement  of  any  important  proposition  of  law  whatsoever,  before 
any  legal  tribunal  of  character  whatever,  to  his  best  exertion  of  his 
faculties,  than  to  any  other  ability  which  the  whole  wealth  of  the 
profession  could  supply."  And  the  same  acute  observer  and  mas- 
tei'ly  critic  said  of  him  :  "He  spoke  with  consummate  ability  to  the 
bench,  and  yet  exactly  as,  according  to  every  canon  of  taste  and 
ethics,  the  bench  ought  to  be  addressed."  It  was  William  M.  Evarts 
who,  Avith  his  eye  upon  the  "history  of  the  country,"  said  of  him: 
"I  am  quite  sure  that  there  is  not,  in  the  general  judgment  of  the 
profession,  nor  in  the  conforming  opinion  of  his  countrymen,  any 
lawyer  that  in  the  magnitude  of  his  causes,  in  the  greatness  of  their 
public  character,  in  the  immensity  of  their  influence  upon  the  for- 
tunes of  the  country,  or  in  the  authority  which  his  manner  of  forensic 
eloquence  produced  in  courts  and  over  courts,  can  be  placed  in  the 
same  rank  with  Mr.  Webster." 

Such  testimonies,  from  such  sources,  with  such  sweep  of  inclusion, 
leave  nothing  to  add  and  nothing  to  subtract.  It  is  light  reflected 
from  the  great  lights  of  the  law  upon  the  chief  luminary  of  their 
profession.  Another  able  counselor,  accustomed  to  practice  by 
his  side,  Charles  G.  Loring,  bore  this  additional  testimony:  "He 
could  not  argue  a  bad  cause  comparatively  well."  If  this  be  true, 
it  is  the  highest  testimony  to  his  lucid  mind  and  honest  purpose,  that 
could  not  and  would  not  put  light  for  darkness  and  darkness  for 
light.  It  was  indeed  the  high,  open,  and  manly  ground  taken  by  Mr. 
Webster  which,  from  the  outset,  impressed  the  ablest  of  his  antago- 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  35 

nists  and  associates.  Calhoun  pronounced  him  the  fairest  man  he 
ever  met  to  state  the  position  of  his  opponents ;  and  so  high  an 
authority  as  Chief-Justice  Joel  Parker  has  recorded  to  his  honor  as  a 
lawyer  :  "He  met  the  case  fairly ;  he  resorted  to  no  tricks  to  make 
the  worse  appear  the  better  reason."  It  was  his  crowning  merit,  too, 
that  while  he  argued  cases,  he  also  settled  principles. 

Side  by  side  with  his  growing  legal  reputation  blossomed  out  his 
power  and  fame  as  an  orator.  From  the  date  of  his  Plymouth  dis- 
course in  1820,  his  rank  was  settled.  It  called  forth  the  calm  but 
exhaustive  admiration  of  such  a  man  as  Chancellor  Kent  for  "its 
reflections,  its  sentiments,  its  morals,  its  patriotism,  its  eloquence, 
its  imagination,  and  its  style."  It  evoked  the  enthusiastic  outburst 
of  stout  old  John  Adams,  that  "five  hundred  years  hence  it  will  be 
read  with  as  much  admiration  as  it  was  heard  ; "  and  for  a  generation 
it  Avas  declaimed  in  almost  every  public  school  in  the  land.  After 
the  lapse  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  from  his  death,  no  less  an  orator 
than  Winthrop  affirmed  that  "  certainly  from  the  date  of  that  dis- 
course he  stood  second  as  an  orator  to  no  one  who  spoke  the  English 
language."  Indeed,  the  chief  reviler  over  his  new-made  grave 
could  say:  "Since  the  great  Athenians,  Demosthenes  and  Pericles, 
who  ever  thundered  out  such  spoken  eloquence  as  his  ?  "  His  first 
Bunker  Hill  oration,  his  eulogy  on  Adams  and  Jefferson,  his  crush- 
ing reply  to  Hayne,  his  jury  argument  on  the  murder  of  Joseph 
White,  stand  out  with  equal  prominence  as  monuments  of  power, 
and  a  great  multitude  of  other  remarkable  speeches  gather  round 
them,  covering  almost  every  possible  variety  and  combination  of 
conditions.  For  more  than  a  generation  his  voice  was  heard  at  pub- 
lic ceremonials,  conventions,  and  mass  meetings,  in  the  Senate,  at 
the  bar,  at  dinners  and  receptions,  in  political  excitements,  on  his 
journeyings,  before  select  audiences,  to  the  inner  circles  of  friends 
and  neighbors.  And  if  it  be  true  that  a  great  occasion  was  required 
to  rouse  him  to  the  fullest  exertion  of  his  powers,  it  is  also  true  that 
he  never  fell  below,  wandered  from,  nor  failed  to  dignify,  the  occa- 
sion. Whether  he  addressed  the  ladies  of  Richmond,  the  young  men 
of  Albany,  the  sons  of  New  Hampshire  in  Boston,  the  Dartmouth 
alumni  in  Washington,  the  brokers  in  Wall  street,  his  Democratic 
opponents  at  his  home  in  Franklin,  the  court,  the  Senate,  or  the  jury, 
spoke  at  a  Pilgrim  festival,  a  cattle  fair,  the  opening  of  a  railway, 
or  the  laying  of  a  corner-stone,  gave  an  historical  address,  a  eulogy 
on  Mason,  Story,  or  Calhoun,  it  was  alike  pertinent,  manly,  and 
true. 

The  singular  breadth  and  fertility  of  his  mind  appeared  in  the 
unfailing  variety  of  his  utterances.  He  never  repeated  himself.  I 


36  STATUE    OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

remember  how  in  the  political  struggle  of  1844,  when  Webster, 
Choate,  Ashmun,  and  others  were  addressing  the  people  far  and  near 
on  the  issues  of  the  pending  election,  Mr.  Webster's  many  speeches 
were  alone  reported  in  full,  and  the  reason  rendered  me  at  the  time 
was,  because  they  alone  could  bear  it.  Mr.  Everett  has  in  like  man- 
ner called  attention  to  the  series  of  speeches  made  by  him  on  a  ti'ip 
over  the  Erie  Railway.  Not  counting  mere  snatches  of  remarks  here 
and  there,  eleven  extemporaneous  speeches  Avere  made  on  that  jour- 
ney, as  he  was  called  from  the  cars  to  the  platform.  "Eveiy  one  of 
them,"  said  Mr.  Everett  after  a  careful  perusal,  "was  singularly 
adapted  to  the  place  and  occasion.  Everj'  one  of  those  eleven 
speeches  would  have  added  greatly  to  the  reputation  of  any  other 
man  in  the  United  States ;  made  as  they  were  without  preparation, 
they  impressed  me  more  than  anything  else  with  his  extraordinary 
capacity."  Indeed,  when  we  pass  in  review  all  the  qualities  of  his 
oratory,  —  his  fullness,  depth,  and  clearness,  his  readiness  and  adap- 
tation, his  iron  logic  and  his  splendid  rhetoric,  his  lofty  imagination, 
his  converging  thought  and  his  plastic  style,  his  grand  presence  and 
magnetic  impression,  when  we  consider  the  wide  range  of  his  efforts, 
and  the  effects,  immediate  and  lasting,  which  he  produced,  —  I  am 
almost  ready  to  ask  whether,  Avhen  estimated  in  the  grand  total,  the 
annals  of  oratory  certainly  furnish  a  greater  name  than  Webster. 

Of  later  but  not  less  solid  growth,  was  Mr.  Webstei-1s  fame  as  a 
statesman  and  diplomatist.  His  views  of  national  policy  were  early 
matured,  and  with  the  minor  modifications  to  which  a  wise  and 
expanding  mind  must  ever  hold  itself  open,  he  maintained  them 
consistently  to  the  end.  It  was  inevitable  that  he  should  stand  allied 
to  one  of  the  two  great  political  organizations,  which,  from  the 
nature  of  government  and  the  two  broad  divergent  theories  as  to  its 
function,  whether  fostering  or  merely  permissive,  will  always  exist 
in  a  republic.  It  would  be  but  fair  to  judge  him  from  that  stand- 
point in  public  affairs  Avhich  he  deliberately  chose.  But  happily  the 
time  has  come  when  we  can  rise  to  a  plane  above  the  line  of  party 
divisions,  and  test  him  by  his  adhesion  to  the  constitution,  the  laws, 
and  entire  welfare  of  his  country,  and  to  the  sound  and  righteous 
principles  on  which  that  government  was  founded.  He  believed,  as 
we  all  believe,  that  whatever  may  have  been  its  theoretical  or  prac- 
tical human  defects,  the  world  has  seen  no  such  govei'nment  as  ours, 
and  were  it  once  broken  in  pieces,  no  such  government  would  take 
its  place,  and  that  with  its  downfall  the  great  hopes  of  the  world 
would  be  clouded  over.  To  the  watchful  guardianship  of  the  vast 
and  precious  interests  thus  garnered  up  in  this  federal  government, 
he  gave,tin  the  house,  the  senate,  and  the  cabinet,  thirty-tln-ee  years 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  37 

of  assiduous,  self-sacrificing  toil,  and  a  patriotism  hampered  by  no 
sectional  or  party  ties,  but  as  broad  as  the  nation's  boundaries  and 
as  high  as  her  destinies. 

Of  the  vast  and  complex  variety  of  measures  Avhich  during  that 
protracted  period  felt  his  hand,  enlisted  his  pen,  and  evoked  his 
voice,  I  cannot  even  speak  by  enumeration.  Mr.  Choate,  after  some 
pages  of  outline,  breaks  off  by  declaring  that  it  "demands  a  vol- 
ume." They  include  the  functions  of  the  government  itself,  from 
center  to  circumference,  its  boundaries  and  its  territory,  its  resources, 
finances,  commerce,  improvements,  its  internal  and  foreign  relations, 
in  peace  and  war,  on  the  land  and  on  the  sea.  In  all  these  multifa- 
rious and  complicated  affairs  he  stood  forth  for  a  generation  a  lead- 
ing spirit,  a  guiding  and  often  a  controlling  power,  shaping  the 
destiny  of  the  whole  country.  During  that  long  period,  no  measure 
that  concerned  the  honor,  integrity,  or  prosperity  of  the  nation, 
escaped  his  vigilance  or  his  influence.  Some  of  those  services  were 
conspicuous  enough  to  arrest  the  eyes  of  the  nation  and  the  world. 
When  in  his  reply  to  Hayne  he  strangled  the  doctrine  of  nullifica- 
tion, it  is  the  testimony  of  the  southern  Bayard  and  the  northern 
Winthrop,  that  he  deferred  the  bloody  conflict  thirty  years.  And 
when  the  conflict  came,  the  long  echoes  of  that  speech  were  the 
reverberating  call  that  summoned  and  cheered  the  friends  of  the 
Union  to  the  rescue ;  its  solid  principles,  the  impregnable  rock  on 
which  a  million  soldiers  stood,  and  fought,  and  won.  In  the  cele- 
brated Washington  treaty,  by  his  wisdom,  firmness,  legal  knowledge, 
reasoning  power,  diplomatic  tact  and  personal  ascendency,  he  calmed 
the  excited  passions  of  the  two  foremost  nations,  and  averted  the 
imminent  danger  of  a  fratricidal  and  ruinous  war.  He  did  it  only 
by  remaining  in  the  cabinet  of  President  Tyler  for  the  good  of  his 
country,  but  against  the  warnings  of  political  friends.  No  other 
man  in  America  could  have  wafted  that  momentous  treaty  over  all 
the  rocks  and  shoals  and  breakers  at  home  and  abroad ;  and  pos- 
terity, I  think,  has  already  accorded  him  its  unanimous  and  admiring 
vote.  So  sometimes  did  the  judgment  of  contemporaries.  Thus 
Avhen  in  that  bold  and  masterly  dispatch  to  Hiilsemann  he  courte- 
ously rebuked  the  insolence  of  the  Austrian  charge  and  left  not  a 
shred  of  his  argument,  when  he  demolished  the  claim  of  the  Austrian 
cabinet  to  treat  the  American  envoy  as  a  spy,  and  met  their  menace 
with  the  information  that  such  a  course  would  have  roused,  if  need 
be,  the  whole  military  and  naval  force  of  a  republic  "whose  power," 
said  he,  "is  spread  over  a  region,  one  of  the  richest  and  most  fertile 
on  the  globe,  and  of  an  extent  in  comparison  with  which  the  posses- 
sions of  the  House  of  Hapsburg  are  but  as  a  patch  on  the  surface  of 


38  STATUE   OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

the  earth,"  the  heart  of  the  whole  American  people  beat  with  him  in 
sympathetic  admiration. 

Not  the  least  shining  aspect  of  his  statesmanship  and  diplomacy 
was  the  readiness  with  which,  in  the  discharge  of  duty,  he  overleaped 
party  lines,  sustained  what  he  deemed  the  right  measures  of  political 
opponents,  aided  in  the  election  of  his  rivals  and  inferiors,  and  fol- 
lowed what  he  avowed  to  be  his  duty,  though  it  cost  him  hosts  of 
life-long  friends.  "  It  was  not  in  his  nature,"  well  says  Mr.  Elaine, 
"to  be  a  partisan  chief."  And  so  in  a  critical  time  of  Jackson's 
administration  he  came  to  his  rescue  on  the  "force  bill,"  and  "  Old 
Hickoiy  "  in  person  expressed  his  gratitude.  Vice-President  John- 
son had  to  thank  him  for  "  a  magnanimity  and  courtesy  above  the 
times."  Though  urged  to  the  contrary,  he  took  the  stump  for  his 
constant  competitor,  Clay,  —  a  favor,  alas,  ill  requited  by  Mr.  Clay 
at  the  close  of  his  life.  He  turned  the  tide  of  northern  votes  in  be- 
half of  General  Taylor,  though  at  first  the  nomination  had  seemed  to 
him  "  not  fit  to  be  made."  To  one  candidate  of  his  party  he  refused 
his  support,  because,  while  "himself  well  enough"  and  "of  good 
principles,"  he  was  sure  to  be  "  the  tool "  of  other  men ;  and  he  pre- 
dicted the  signal  defeat  which  awaited  the  candidate.  How  gener- 
ously he  could  speak  of  the  high  qualities  of  Clay,  Calhoun,  and 
Pierce,  and  how  promptly  he  could  clasp  hands  once  more  with  Ben- 
ton  after  years  of  estrangement.  How  completely  his  letter  of 
apology  won  the  heart  of  Senator  Dickinson,  who  "perused  and 
reperused  the  beautiful  note."  How  frankly  he  met  the  friendly 
overtures  of  his  life-long,  keen  antagonist,  our  Governor  Hill,  and 
welcomed  him  at  his  house  in  Franklin.  And  though  there  were  some 
sharp  passages  at  arms  during  his  long  career,  how  magnanimously 
was  every  stinging  word  struck  out  from  his  published  works. 

No  more  conspicuous  instance  could  be  furnished  of  freedom  from 
all  trammels  but  his  own  sense  of  duty,  than  his  noted  speech  on  the 
7th  of  March,  1850,  on  the  Compromise.  It  was  deliberately  done. 
Weeks  beforehand,  in  the  evening  interview  sought  by  Mr.  Clay,  he 
had  declared  his  purpose  to  take  his  stand,  "  no  matter  what  might 
befall  himself  at  the  North."  He  took  it.  It  cost  him  more  than  any 
other  act  of  his  life,  —  estrangement  of  friends,  loss  of  popularity, 
bitter  taunts  and  revilings,  the  refusal  once  of  old  Faneuil  Hall,  and 
unfavorable  judgments  to  the  present  day.  Occurring  at  the  close 
of  a  long  and  honored  life,  the  scene  is  pathetic  and  almost  tragic. 
Now  that  the  excitements  are  gone  and  the  issues  are  dead,  it  is  time 
to  appeal  to  the  sober  second  thought  of  posterity.  Whether  judged 
by  his  own  record  and  his  avowed  standard  of  duty,  or  by  the  stand- 
ard freely  conceded  by  the  nation  to  other  illustrious  men,  his  great 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  39 

memory  should  now  be  cleared  from  that  odium.  We  can  now  see 
that  his  whole  past  career  brought  him  where  he  stood  that  day. 
With  every  utterance  of  his  public  life  he  was  committed  to  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  constitution  and  the  Union ;  and  on  that  day  he  pro- 
claimed, "I  speak  to-day  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union."  He 
had  always  held  slavery  to  be  a  "  great  moral,  social,  and  political 
evil ; "  he  deliberately  reiterated  the  opinion  on  that  seventh  of 
March.  He  had  argued  and  voted  steadily  against  the  extension  of 
slavery,  and  he  most  emphatically  declared  on  that  day,  "  Wherever 
there  is  a  foot  of  land  to  be  prevented  from  becoming  slave  territory, 
I  am  ready  to  assert  the  principle  of  the  exclusion  of  slavery.  I 
have  been  pledged  to  it  again  and  again,  and  I  will  redeem  those 
pledges."  He  declared  that  in  those  sections  where  slavery  existed 
under  the  solemn,  pledges  of  the  constitution,  those  pledges,  once 
made,  could  not  be  broken.  So  he  had  always  declared,  and  so  had 
the  whole  nation.  He  confessed  himself  unable  —  and  who  was  not? 
—  to  propose  measures  for  the  extinction  of  slavery,  but  willing  to 
appropriate  two  hundred  millions  of  the  public  money  to  colonize 
colored  people  who  were  or  should  be  made  free.  No  human  eye 
could  then  discern  a  possible  remedy  for  the  central  evil,  except  in 
the  quiet  penetration  of  the  Gospel,  which,  as  Mr.  Webster  then  said, 
"  went  to  the  first  fountain  of  all  the  social  and  political  relations  of 
the  human  race."  For  though  the  remedy  did  suddenly  appear  in 
the  form  of  civil  convulsion,  that  convulsion  came,  not  by  the  wis- 
dom of  the  wise,  but  by  the  fury  of  the  madman  and  folly  of  the 
fool ;  the  cost  of  one  man's  life  for  every  four  men's  freedom  was  a 
price  that  neither  God  nor  man  could  justify.  That  the  convulsion 
did  not  become  a  general  massacre  and  extermination  at  the  South, 
was  due  to  the  wisdom  of  the  negro  and  the  wisdom  of  God. 

Did  Mr.  Webster  on  that  day  maintain  the  duty  of  rendition  of 
fugitive  slaves  ?  So  he  had  always  done ;  for  so  it  was  written  in 
the  constitution,  and  he  was  bound  to  do  it,  as  he  wrote  to  the  citi- 
zens of  Newburyport,  "by  his  oath  of  office."  Nay,  he  boldly  said 
before  the  senate  and  before  the  world,  "  I  put  it  to  all  the  sober  and 
sound  minds  of  the  North,  as  a  question  of  morals  and  a  question  of 
conscience."  Secession,  revolution,  was  the  only  escape,  and  that 
was  a  bottomless  pit  into  which  neither  he  nor  we  were  prepared  to 
leap.  Was  he  willing  to  forego  extending  the  Wilmot  Proviso  to 
the  new  territories  of  California  and  New  Mexico  ?  It  was,  he  said, 
because  nature  had  rendered  it  needless,  and  he  would  not  add  a 
useless  irritant  to  the  heated  passions  of  the  South.  History  vindi- 
cated his  judgment.  Slavery  gained  no  firm  foothold  in  that  terri- 
tory. And  still  more  remarkable  was  his  vindication  when,  eleven. 


40  STATUE    OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

years  later,  the  very  men  who  reproached  him  for  this  act,  the  radi- 
cal men  of  Congress,  —  Sumner,  Wade,  Seward,  Chandler,  Lovejoy, 
Stevens,  the  Washburns,  —  did  the  very  same  thing  for  the  same 
considerations;  they  consented  to  organize  the  territories  of  Colo- 
rado, Dakota,  and  Nevada  without  a  word  on  the  Wilmot  Proviso, 
and  without  a  word  of  explanation.  "  It  is  seldom,"  says  Mr.  Elaine, 
"  that  history  so  exactly  repeats  itself  ;  in  both  cases  the  acts  were 
altogether  honorable,  the  motives  altogether  patriotic."  ' '  But,"  Mr. 
Elaine  pointedly  adds,  "these  Republicans  should  at  least  have 
offered  and  recorded  their  apology  for  their  animadversions  upon 
Mr.  Webster."  He  builded  better  than  his  censors  knew,  but  he 
builded  as  he  knew.  Those  eleven  years  that  he  gained  to  the  Union 
were  of  inestimable  value  for  the  final  conflict.  Did  he  speak  disap- 
provingly of  the  doings  of  Abolition  societies,  while  conceding  to 
"thousands  of  their  membei's  "  the  praise  of  being  "  honest  and  good 
men,"  and  "  not  imputing  gross  motives  to  their  leaders"  ?  There 
lay  before  his  mind  the  resolutions  adopted  in  Ohio,  and  reaffirmed 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  advocating  a  "  dissolution  of  the  Union,"  the  resolv- 
ers  avowing  themselves  "  enemies  of  the  Union,  the  constitution,  and 
the  govei'nment  of  the  United  States."  Did  not  such  utterances 
deserve  rebuke  ?  But  Mr.  Webster  also  rebuked  the  violent  utter- 
ances of  southern  men,  and  even  arraigned  a  senator  then  upon  the 
floor,  for  words  of  "  offense"  and  "  injustice"  to  the  North. 

Many  were  disappointed,  and  I  was  among  them,  that  his  words 
were  not  more  severe,  —  denunciatory,  —  toward  the  South  and  its 
principles.  But  we  can  now  see  that  this  would  have  been  to  defeat 
his  whole  aim  in  speaking,  and  to  precipitate  the  catastrophe  which 
he  strove  to  avert.  He  then  cleaiiy  knew,  what  the  North  did  not 
know,  the  imminent  danger  of  secession;  and  "peaceable  seces- 
sion," said  he,  with  prophetic  solemnity,  "is  an  utter  impossibility." 
"Sir,"  said  he  on  that  day,  "  I  see  as  plainly  as  I  see  the  sun  in  the 
heavens,  what  disruption  must  produce.  I  see  it  must  produce  war, 
and  such  war  as  I  will  not  describe."  How  dreadfully  was  his 
prophecy  fulfilled,  —  by  a  wreck  of  life  and  health  and  morals,  of 
family  and  social  happiness,  of  individual  and  national  wealth,  on  a 
more  terrific  scale  than  the  world  had  seen  since  the  desolations  of 
the  first  Napoleon.  To  avert  that  awful  calamity  he  stood  forth  on 
that  day ;  and  he  may  righteously  demand  to  be  judged  by  his  own 
life  and  life-long  principles,  by  his  keen  foresight  and  lofty  purpose. 

See,  too,  how  different  has  been  the  fate  of  Webster  and  of  Lin- 
coln. Till  a  dozen  years  after  Mr.  Webster's  death,  and  till  within 
three  years  of  his  own  death,  Mr.  Lincoln  occupied  precisely  Web- 
ster's position,  only  even  more  pronounced.  He  had  even  acted  as 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  41 

attorney  for  the  reclamation  of  five  slaves  escaped  from  Kentucky. 
Only  three  years  before  Mr.  Webster's  speech,  Lincoln  had  intro- 
duced into  Congress  a  fugitive-slave  law  for  the  District  of  Columbia. 
Twelve  years  after  that  seventh  of  March  he  had  published  to  the 
world  this  well-known  statement:  "I  would  save  the  Union.  I 
would  save  it  in  the  shortest  way  under  the  constitution  .  .  .  the 
Union  as  it  was.  My  paramount  object  is  to  save  the  Union,  and  not 
either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery.  If  I  could  save  the  Union  without 
freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do  it.  If  I  could  do  it  by  freeing  all  the 
slaves,  I  would  do  it.  If  I  could  do  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving 
others  alone,  I  would  also  do  that."  It  was  only  after  the  hardest 
education,  and  when  compelled  by  the  necessities  of  war,  that  he 
took  his  final  stand.  But  while  Lincoln  is  justly  canonized,  Webster 
has  been  as  unjustly  anathematized.  Let  the  last  cloud  pass  away 
from  over  the  fame  of  a  majestic  character.  Let  us  see  him  as  he 
was,  bound  by  all  his  history,  his  principles,  and  his  prophecies,  and 
able  to  say  as  did  Luther:  "Here  I  stand;  I  cannot  do  otherwise." 
And  let  us  not  fail  to  see  how,  with  his  inborn  hatred  of  slavery 
itself,  when  once  the  bonds  of  the  constitution  were  finally  broken 
by  the  emergencies  of  war,  he  would  have  said,  in  more  command- 
ing tones  than  he  said  of  the  slave-trade  thirty  years  before,  "It  is 
not  fit  that  the  land  bear  the  shame  longer,"  and  with  a  zeal  like  that 
with  which  his  honored  father  fought  for  liberty  at  Bunker  Hill  and 
Bennington,  he  would  have  cheered  on  every  stroke  for  universal 
freedom  against  the  rampant  slave  power,  from  Bull  Run  to  Appo- 
mattox. 

Such,  imperfectly  sketched,  was  Webster,  the  jurist  and  advocate, 
the  orator,  the  statesman  and  diplomatist.  But  more  than  all  and 
the  basis  of  all,  Avas  the  grandeur  and  fullness  of  the  man,  in  his 
intellect,  his  sympathies,  his  affections.  He  had  faults,  and  they 
have  been  exaggerated.  I  am  here  neither  to  arraign  nor  defend 
them.  His  make  was  large.  Though  not  technically  a  scholar,  he 
was  much  more  in  his  mastery  of  the  highest  results  of  scholarship, 
and  in  his  broad  range  of  knowledge  and  thought.  In  his  speeches, 
his  papers,  his  letters,  to  whomsoever  and  for  whatsoever,  from,  the 
great  themes  of  state  down  to  the  details  of  farm  life,  there  is  the 
same  singular  fertility  of  matter,  strength,  and  brightness.  His  pri- 
vate conversation  and  social  life  were  equally  exuberant  of  wisdom, 
reminiscence,  anecdote,  and  humor.  No  man  met  him  casually  or 
permanently  but  felt  his  power.  He  could  not  move  unknown. 

Mr.  Webster's  sympathies  were  as  broad  as  his  intellect.  Beneath 
a  dignified  and  often  cold  exterior  he  had  a  great  warm  heart.  He 
•could  be  on  friendly  terms  with  political  opponents.  He  seemed  to 


42  STATUE    OF    DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

"  love  all  things,  both  groat  and  small."  He  was  fond  of  nature,  of 
outdoor  recreations,  and  of  the  whole  animal  world.  The  great 
Secretary  of  State  would  bring  the  eggs  from  his  barn  in  his  wife's 
work-basket.  He  loved  to  feed  his  fine  cattle  with  his  own  hand, 
and  in  the  last  few  days  of  his  life  he  gathered  them  to  his  door  to 
look  once  more  on  their  friendly  faces.  Quail,  rabbit,  and  squirrel 
were  safe  on  his  lands.  He  would  gaze  on  the  sun  rising  over  the 
sea;  he  shouted  and  sung  with  the  exhilaration.  "I  know  the 
morning,'1  said  he,  "I  am  acquainted  with  it,  and  I  love  it.  I  love 
it,  fresh  and  sweet  as  it  is,  —  a  daily  new  creation,  breaking  forth 
and  calling  all  that  have  life  and  breath  and  being  to  new  adoration, 
new  enjoyments,  and  new  gratitude."  He  often  expressed  his  de- 
light in  the  scenery  of  his  native  state,  —  "its  hills  and  vales,"  its 
"beautiful  elms  and  maples,"  its  "little  trickling  brooks,"  heard 
"in  the  still  night";  the  "most  beautiful  spectacle  of  the  autumn 
forests ; "  "the  low  and  deep  murmuring  of  those  forests,  the  fogs  and 
mists  rising  and  spreading,  and  clasping  the  breasts  of  the  moun- 
tains whose  heads  were  still  high  and  bright  in  the  skies ; "  its 
"skies  all-healthful,  and  its  mountains  surpassingly  grand  and  sub- 
lime." How  fondly  he  appreciated  the  attractions  of  Marshfield, 
while  he  yet  could  write  from  Elms  Farm,  the  home  of  his  childhood, 
"After  all,  this  is  the  sweetest  place  in  the  world."  For,  after 
describing  all  its  surroundings,  when  he  looked  out  of  the  east  win- 
dows over  the  rich  plains  of  the  Merrimack,  —  "At  the  east  end  of 
it,"  said  he,  "I  see  plain,  marble  gravestones  designating  the  places 
where  repose  my  father,  my  mother,  my  brother  Joseph,  and  my 
sisters.  Dear,  dear  kindred  blood,  how  I  love  you  all."  His  attach- 
ments were  strong  and  lasting.  He  affectionately  remembered  his 
college  classmates  and  the  schoolmasters  of  his  boyhood.  Not  a 
few  of  his  humbler  early  associates  were  objects  of  his  benefactions. 
He  purchased  and  freed  the  slaves  Monica  and  Henry.  His  old 
neighbors  loved  and  clung  to  him,  and  he  clung  to  them ;  and  there 
are  few  more  touching  letters  than  his  reply  to  his  New  Hampshire 
neighbors  in  1850,  in  which  he  tells  them,  "I  could  pour  out  my 
heart  in  tenderness  of  feeling  for  the  affectionate  letter  which  comes 
from  you.  It  comes  from  home  ;  it  comes  from  those  whom  I  have 
known,  or  who  have  known  me  from  my  birth.  It  is  like  the  love 
of  a  family  circle ;  its  influences  fall  on  a  heart  like  the  dew  of 
Hermon."  Friends  of  his  maturer  years  were  bound  to  him  by  the 
strongest  of  ties,  and  Webster  and  Choate  were  like  David  and  Jona- 
than. How  intense  were  his  family  affections.  The  fond  memory 
of  father  and  mother  followed  him  to  the  last.  The  premature  death 
of  his  brother  in  the  court  house  here  left  a  wound  in  his  heart,  thirty 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  43 

years  later  still  "fresh  and  bleeding.''  And  how  crushing  was  the 
grief  as  wife  and  children,  one  by  one,  were  taken  from  his  sight. 

I  should  do  Mr.  Webster's  greatness  the  greatest  injustice,  did  I 
close  this  discourse  without  an  acknowledgment  of  his  noble  and  un- 
faltering stand  for  principle,  morality,  and  Christianity.  Where  in 
all  his  recorded  utterances  is  there  a  sentence  or  a  word  that  on  this 
account  we  could  wish  erased  ?  What  prominent  politician  or  states- 
man, from  Washington  to  the  present  day,  has  uttered  himself  so 
openly  and  so  powerfully  in  the  maintenance  of  true  religion  ?  His 
argument  on  the  Girard  will  was  circulated  by  the  clergy.  He  read 
and  reverenced  the  Bible,  and  knew  large  portions  of  it  by  heart. 
He  honored  the  sacred  day,  closing  his  gates  to  visitors,  and  being 
found  in  the  house  of  worship.  He  began  his  family  life  at  Ports- 
mouth with  family  prayers  conducted  by  himself,  and  after  interrup- 
tions resumed  the  practice  at  Marshfield.  Through  life  he  was  wont 
to  ask  a  blessing  at  his  table.  "Religion,"  said  he  to  the  supreme 
court  of  Massachusetts  in  his  eulogy  on  Mason,  "  religion  is  a  neces- 
sary and  indispensable  element  in  any  great  human  character. 
There  is  no  living  without  it.  Religion  is  the  tie  that  connects  man 
with  his  Maker  and  holds  him  to  his  throne.  If  that  tie  be  sundered, 
all  broken,  he  floats  away,  a  worthless  atom  in  the  universe,  its 
pi'oper  attractions  all  gone,  its  destiny  thwarted,  and  its  whole  future 
nothing  but  darkness,  desolation,  and  death."  In  answer  to  the 
blunt  question  of  John  Colby,  "Are  you  a  Christian?"  he  replied: 
"I  hope  that  I  am  a  Christian;  I  profess  to  be  a  Christian.  But 
while  I  say  that,  I  wish  to  add,  —  and  I  say  it  with  shame  and  con- 
fusion of  face,  —  that  I  am  not  such  a  Christian  as  I  wish  to  be." 
Almost  the  last  words  of  the  last  night  of  his  life  were  words  of 
prayer.  His  tomb  bears  the  inscription,  prepai'ed  by  himself,  begin- 
ning :  "Lord,  I  believe,  help  thou  mine  unbelief." 

This  was  the  man  whom  we  commemorate  to-day.  The  living 
recollection  of  his  majestic  presence  will  soon  have  passed  away, 
but  so  long  as  English  literature  shall  last,  the  work  that  he  did  will 
stand  embalmed  in  the  works  that  he  left.  Time  is  vindicating  his 
contemporary  fame.  And  when  the  distant  historian  shall  pass  in 
review  the  illustrious  men  of  the  nation  between  Washington  and 
Lincoln,  what  figure  among  them  all  will  loom  up  so  clear  and  grand 
upon  the  vision  of  posterity  ?  He  was  one  whom  the  presidency  of 
these  United  States  could  hardly  have  honored,  but  who  could  have 
honored  the  presidency.  It  is  as  well  that  he  did  not.  No  title  is  so 
great  as  the  name  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Fellow  citizens,  Mr.  Webster  was  pre-eminently  a  New  Hamp- 
shire man.  Born  upon  its  soil,  and  for  the  first  four  and  thirty  years 


44  STATUE    OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

a  constant  resident  of  its  territory,  he  was  molded  by  its  influ- 
ences; and  even  its  physical  features  seemed  stamped  upon  his  soul. 
The  dark,  unbroken  sweep  of  its  primeval  forests  well  symbolized 
the  vast  resources  of  his  capacious  intellect ;  its  marvelously  varied 
surface  of  grove  and  meadow,  hiil  and  dale,  was  a  fit  emblem  of  the 
many-sidedness  of  his  ways ;  its  June  vei'dure  is  not  brighter  than 
the  freshness  of  his  whole  nature  to  the  last ;  its  bubbling  springs 
and  trickling  rills  are  not  more  playful  than  the  genial  humor  of  his 
private  life,  nor  its  still  lakes  more  profound  than  the  depth  of  his 
affections ;  its  granite  cliffs  reappear  in  the  massive  solidity  of  his 
character ;  its  mountain  heights  in  the  towering  ascendency  of  his 
powers ;  while  its  rushing  rivers,  swollen  by  the  melting  snows  of 
spring,  alone  can  represent  the  tide  of  his  eloquence. 

"  The  boundless  prairies  learned  his  name, 
His  words  the  mountain  echoes  knew ; 
The  northern  breezes  swept  his  fame 
From  icy  lake  to  warm  bayou. 

In  toil  he  lived ;  in  peace  he  died ; 

When  life's  full  cycle  was  complete, 
Put  off  his  robes  of  power  and  pride, 

And  laid  them  at  his  Master's  feet. 

His  rest  is  by  the  storm-swept  waves 

Whom  life's  wild  tempests  roughly  tried, 

Whose  heart  was  like  the  streaming  caves 
Of  ocean  throbbing  at  his  side." 

Here  stands  his  statue.  Here  let  it  stand  through  the  generations 
to  come,  in  this  center  and  heart  of  the  commonwealth,  by  the  Main 
street  of  her  capital  and  the  door  of  her  state  house.  The  quiet 
flow  of  daily  life,  the  bustle  of  business,  and  the  public  parade  shall 
pass  before  him  in  silent  review.  The  stranger  shall  pause  and  gaze 
on  that  imperial  brow.  Children  shall  here  ask  and  be  told  his  name 
and  fame.  The  men  of  New  Hampshire  shall  point  with  pride  to 
the  greatest  of  their  fellow  citizens.  Legislators  and  officers  of 
state,  as  they  pass  to  their  work,  shall  be  greeted  by  the  sight  of  one 
who  wove  so  strong  the  bonds  of  the  Union  and  the  constitution, 
and  guarded  so  well  the  priceless  blessings  they  enfold.  And  as 
long  as  her  fountains  shall  gush,  her  lakes  shall  gleam,  her  rivers 
run,  and  her  mountains  rise,  shall  the  memory  of  Webster  be  fresh 
in  his  native  state. 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  45 


SPEECH   OF   GOVERNOR  ROBINSON,    OF   MASSACHUSETTS. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  —  Massachusetts  delights  to  be  present  here 
with  you  to-day  and  to  participate  in  these  most  interesting  and  im- 
pressive ceremonies.  Happily,  no  human  eye  can  discern  a  line  that 
marks  a  separation  between  the  two  states  whose  people  to-day  join 
in  joyful  recognition  of  the  consummate  ability,  marvelous  achieve- 
ment, and  unquestioning  loyalty  in  the  man  who  stood  in  the  fore- 
most rank  of  the  greatest  of  lawyers,  orators,  and  statesmen  the 
world  ever  saw.  With  one  common  spirit  Massachusetts  and  New 
Hampshii*e  unite  to  hail  with  exultant  pride  and  unquestioning 
enthusiasm  the  accomplishment  of  a  work  that  shall  perpetuate  in 
enduring  bronze  the  name,  and  the  form,  and  the  fame  of  Daniel 
Webster.  To  the  place  of  his  nativity  and  to  the  home  of  his  later 
years,  his  career  of  honor  and  power  is  a  rich  heritage  and  brings 
grand  inspiration  for  the  highest  and  greatest  that  human  mind  can 
master.  But  two  states  could  not  confine  the  greatness  of  his  power 
when  in  his  activity  and  vigor  of  life,  and  no  more  now  can  the 
same  two  states  hold  in  exclusive  title  his  distinctive  renown 
wrought  in  his  public  life  and  work.  Co-extensive  with  the  grand 
Union  which  was  the  fond  ideal  of  his  dearest  hopes,  enduring  as 
the  nationality  which  inspired  him  to  his  noblest  efforts,  his  name 
and  fame  are  in  the  keeping  of  all  the  people  of  the  land  and  com- 
mand the  admiration  of  the  civilized  world.  Here  he  raised  his 
eyes  again  to  his  native  hills ;  here  he  breathed  anew  the  fresh  air 
of  heaven  amid  scenes  endeared  to  him  by  the  association  of  his 
young  days  and  hallowed  by  the  tender  affections  of  home  and 
kindred  ;  here  he  turned  in  contemplation  of  the  humble  beginning 
of  his  illustrious,  forceful  life  ;  here  he  renewed  in  memory  the  con- 
flicts that  were  crowned  with  his  earlier  triumphs  and  developed  in 
him  that  intellectual  strength  and  clearness  that  made  him  the  irre- 
sistible champion  in  the  arena  of  debate. 

Eminently  fitting  it  is  that  in  this  memorable  place,  in  the  capital 
city  of  his  native  state,  here  before  the  halls  of  assembly,  where  free 
people  meet  to  enact  their  will  into  just  and  salutaiy  laws  that  de- 
velop and  perpetuate  their  liberties,  this  memorial  shall  stand  for  all 
coming  time  to  tell  of  his  devotion  to  the  constitution  of  the  fathers. 

The  traveler  in  all  the  years  to  come,  the  youth  of  the  generations 
in  the  centuries  of  the  future,  will  pause  here  in  contemplation,  and, 
with  uncovered  heads,  will  pay  the  abundant  tribute  of  respect  to  a 
grand  hero  in  life  whose  heai't  thrilled  with  pride  when  he  declared  : 
"  I  was  born  an  American,  I  live  an  American,  and  I  shall  die  an 
American." 


46  STATUE    OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

But  a  far  grander  monument,  not  reared  with  human  hands,  stands 
to  testify  of  his  public  work  and  services.  It  rests  on  every  inch  of 
soil  in  this  great  republic  of  the  United  States  of  America.  It  is 
the  shrine  of  union  and  liberty  consecrated  by  the  sacrifices  of  the 
fathers,  sustained  and  defended  by  his  abilities  and  power,  and  sanc- 
tified anew  in  the  heroism  and  blood  of  the  sons  who  periled  all, 
that  liberty  should  survive  and  the  Union  endure.  When  the  great 
life  was  ebbing  out,  when  death  entered  the  shades  at  Marshfield, 
the  glazing  eye  turned  upon  states  discordant  but  not  then  bellig- 
erent. It  looked  upon  a  land  not  then  drenched  with  fraternal 
blood,  but  upon  a  land  over  which  the  subdued  and  baffled  spirit 
of  nullification  was  threatening  to  reappear  in  the  accursed  demon 
form  of  secession  and  disunion.  The  great  spirit  passed  on  forever 
to  the  vale  beyond ;  and  the  mortal  eye  closed  at  last  upon  earthly 
scenes.  The  hush  of  death  was  followed  by  the  clangor  of  battle. 
War  came,  —  long,  terrible,  costly,  and  bloody  ;  but  the  bow  of  peace 
appeared  not  again  resplendent  in  the  heavens  until  the  sovereignty 
of  the  national  government  was  everywhere  acknowledged,  and 
liberty  and  union  became  in  very  fact  one  and  inseparable  in 
America  forever. 

SPEECH   OF   GOVEKN'OK   HILL,    OF   XK\V   YORK. 

Mr.  Chairman,  and  Your  Excellency  the  Governor,  —  Most  exact- 
ing official  engagements  during  the  past  thirty  days  have  occupied 
my  entire  time.  I  have  had  no  opportunity,  except  a  few  moments 
which  I  took  on  my  way  hither,  to  think  of  what  I  should  say  at  this 
time. 

It  is  needless  for  me  to  tell  you  that  I  am  pleased  to  be  pi'es- 
ent  on  this  interesting  occasion.  I  have  come  from  the  capital  of 
the  Empire  State  to  testify  by  my  presence,  rather  than  by  any 
word  that  I  may  express,  the  interest  which  the  people  of  my  state 
feel  in  the  name  and  fame  of  Daniel  Webster.  Though  born 
upon  the  soil  of  your  state  he  did  not  belong  to  you  alone.  Your 
sister  states  join  with  his  native  state  in  claiming  some  share  of  the 
honor  and  glory  which  his  achievements  and  services  reflected  upon 
the  whole  country.  His  fame  is  the  renown  of  America.  His  life 
and  character  add  luster  to  the  free  institutions  of  our  land.  It  may 
be  safely  asserted  that  among  all  the  great  men  who  have  been 
developed  under  our  democratic  form  of  government,  he  was  one  of 
the  greatest,  if  not  the  greatest.  No  student  can  peruse  his  works 
without  being  impressed  with  the  superiority  of  his  eminent  ability. 
Endowed  by  nature  with  extraordinaiy  powers,  uncommonly  gifted, 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  47 

he  was  a  born  leader  among  men.  Whether  as  a  statesman,  orator, 
or  jurist,  he  had  no  rivals  worthy  of  the  name.  Always  a  profound 
thinker,  he  exhausted  every  subject  he  discussed,  and  this  is  the  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  all  his  productions  and  efforts.  No  subject 
was  ever  so  deep  that  he  did  not  fathom  it ;  no  litigation  so  intricate 
that  he  did  not  comprehend  it ;  no  just  cause  so  weak  that  did  not 
have  in  him  a  powerful  champion  and  friend.  No  public  man  in  all 
our  history  has  succeeded  better  in  rendering  memorable  the  great 
speeches  of  his  life,  and  impressing  their  importance  and  splendor 
upon  his  countrymen.  "What  schoolboy  in  this  broad  land  who  has 
not  declaimed  to  applauding  audiences  one  of  the  immortal  orations 
of  Daniel  Webster  ?  Who  is  so  ignorant  or  obscure  in  this  great 
country  of  ours  who  does  not  know  the  author  of  the  ever  living 
words,  "Liberty  and  union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable"? 

Mr.  Webster  was  unquestionably  the  great  popular  orator  of  his 
time.  None  could  surpass  him  upon  the  stump  and  before  the  peo- 
ple .  About  the  year  1850,  I  believe  it  was,  he  made  a  tour  through 
the  principal  cities  of  New  York,  and  addressed  the  multitudes  who 
flocked  from  all  the  surrounding  country.  From  that  day  down  to 
the  present  time  there  is  pointed  out  to  the  stranger  in  those  cities 
the  spot  where  he  delivered  his  speeches,  the  occasion  being  regarded 
as  the  great  event  of  the  time,  and  the  particular  places  where  he 
stood  a  matter  of  peculiar  interest.  Upon  that  balcony,  or  in  this 
park,  or  in  such  a  hall,  or  in  yonder  church,  is  the  place  where  Dan- 
iel Webster  spoke  in  1850,  is  the  information  which  is  spunded  in 
your  ears  by  the  old  residents  of  those  cities  who  delight  to  recall 
the  important  circumstance. 

It  was  in  defense  of  our  form  of  government,  of  the  constitution, 
and  the  Union,  that  Mr.  WTebster  achieved  his  greatest  triumphs  as  a 
statesman  and  orator.  There  have  been  great  orators  in  the  world's 
history,  but  I  venture  the  assertion  that  none  have  surpassed  his 
wonderful  achievements.  They  gave  him  imperishable  and  ever- 
lasting fame. 

It  was  not  left  for  us  alone,  however,  to  fully  appreciate  his  patri- 
otic services  in  behalf  of  our  imperiled  constitution.  Our  fathers 
before  us  on  every  proper  occasion  testified  their  admiration  for  his 
heroic  and  brilliant  efforts.  There  was  a  public  dinner  given  to  Mr. 
Webster  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  on  May  28,  1851,  by  the  citizens  of  that 
hospitable  city,  which  was  presided  over  by  a  distinguished  citizen 
of  my  state,  Hon.  John  C.  Spencer,  who  in  proposing  a  toast  and 
in  speaking  of  Mr.  Webster's  defense  of  the  constitution  appropri- 
ately said :  "  How  poor  and  insignificant  are  all  our  efforts  to  express 
our  appreciation  of  such  a  character  and  of  such  services.  They 


48  STATUE    OF    DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

have  sunk  deep  into  our  hearts ;  they  will  sink  deeper  into  the  hearts 
of  unborn  millions  who  are  to  people  this  vast  continent ;  and  when 
he  and  we  sleep  with  our  fathers,  his  name  will  reverberate  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  as  the  defender  of  the  constitution  of  his 
country."  He  then  proposed  the  following  beautiful  sentiment: 
"  The  constitution  of  the  United  jStates  and  Daniel  Webster,  insepar- 
able now,  and  inseparable  in  the  records  of  time  and  eternity." 
Mr.  Webster  replied  to  this  compliment  in  his  usual  eloquent  man- 
ner, and  in  concluding  his  speech  proposed  in  return  the  following 
courteous  and  appropriate  sentiment:  "The  young  men  of  Albany, 
the  young  men  of  this  generation  and  of  the  succeeding  generations, 
may  they  live  forever,  but  may  the  constitution  and  the  Union  outlive 
them  all." 

I  have  gladly  journeyed  to  your  capital  to  take  part  in  these  cere- 
monies, and  I  can  assure  you  that  no  state  takes  a  deeper  or  more 
affectionate  interest  in  any  honors  which  can  be  paid  to  your  distin- 
guished statesman  than  the  state  of  New  York.  New  Hampshire 
and  New  York  have  much  in  common.  They  both  actively  engaged 
in  the  great  struggle  for  independence,  and  each  made  glorious  rev- 
olutionary history.  Our  citizens  have  many  business  relations  with 
the  people  of  your  state.  Both  loyally  sustained  the  Union  cause  in 
the  war  of  the  rebellion.  I  recollect  the  fact  that  New  Hampshire 
was  the  birthplace  of  one  of  my  distinguished  predecessors,  he  who 
uttered  the  famous  sentiment,  who  issued  the  familiar  order,  "If 
any  man  attempt  to  haul  down  the  American  flag,  shoot  him  on  the 
spot."  Your  state  may  well  be  proud  of  being  the  birthplace  of  both 
Daniel  Webster  and  Gen.  John  A.  Dix.  I  am  also  reminded  that 
every  block  of  granite  of  which  the  magnificent  capitol  of  the  state 
of  New  York  is  constructed,  comes  from  the  quarries  of  New 
England.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  New  Yorkers  are  sometimes  too 
apt  to  imagine  that  their  state  overshadows  in  importance  the 
other  portions  of  the  country.  A  trip  through  your  beautiful  and 
prosperous  state  will  dissipate  that  illusion. 

In  other  countries  the  great  commercial  metropolis  of  New  York 
city  seems  to  be  confounded  with  New  York  state  and  the  whole 
country.  At  a  public  dinner  given  to  Mr.  Webster  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
in  1851,  he  himself  alluded  to  this  subject,  speaking  as  follows: 
"The  commercial  character  so  far  pervades  the  minds  of  commercial 
men  all  over  the  world  that  there  are  many  men  who  are  very 
respectable  and  intelligent  who  do  not  seem  to  know  there  is  any- 
thing in  the  United  States  but  New  York.  When  I  was  in  England 
it  was  asked  of  me  if  I  did  not  come  from  New  York.  I  told  them 
that  my  wife  came  from  New  York,  and  that  was  something.  Well, 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  49 

gentlemen,  I  had  the  honor  one  day  to  be  invited  to  a  state  dinner  by 
the  lord  mayor  of  London.  He  was  a  portly  and  dignified  gentle- 
man. He  had  a  big  wig  on  his  head  all  powdered,  and  ribboned 
down  behind,  and  I  had  the  honor  of  sitting  between  him  and  the 
lord  mayoress.  There  were  three  hundred  guests,  and  all  the  luxu- 
ries and  gorgeousness  of  the  lord  mayor's  dinner.  Soon  after  the 
cloth  was  removed  his  lordship  thought  proper  to  take  notice  of  his 
American  guest.  He  seemed  not  to  know  exactly  who  I  was.  He 
knew  I  was  a  senator,  but  he  seemed  to  have  little  idea  of  any  place 
in  the  United  States  but  New  York.  He  arose  :  '  Gentlemen,1  said  he, 
'  I  give  you  the  health  of  Mr.  Webster,  a  member  of  the  upper  sen- 
ate of  New  York/  "  Mr.  Webster  was,  of  course,  greatly  surprised 
as  well  as  amused  at  the  blunder  of  his  English  host,  which  thus 
summarily  reduced  him  from  the  high  and  exalted  position  of  a  sen- 
ator of  the  United  States  to  that  of  a  senator  in  the  legislature  of  a 
single  state.  I  can  assure  you,  however,  that  New  York  would  have 
been  proud  to  have  had  Mr.  Webster  her  senator  in  either  her  upper 
or  lower  senate,  or  in  any  other  branch  of  her  legislature. 

I  must  not  detain  you  longer.  I  came  to  listen  rather  than  to 
speak.  I  realize  too  well  that  elaborate  eulogy  cannot  add  anything 
to  the  greatness  or  distinction  of  the  man  whose  statue  you  unveil 
to-day.  We  have  none  of  us  forgotten  the  magnificent  oration  of 
Edward  Everett  on  Webster,  delivered  about  thirty  years  ago  upon 
a  somewhat  similar  occasion.  He  has  left  nothing  for  any  one  to 
say  in  regard  to  Webster  in  this  generation.  It  is  the  most  brilliant 
production  of  this  age  in  the  line  of  oratory,  and  will  answer  for  all 
the  future. 

In  conclusion,  permit  me  to  suggest  that  while  the  pure  and  gen- 
erous motives  which  prompted  the  erection  of  this  statue  are  to 
be  heartily  commended,  it  was  not  needed  to  prevent  the  name  of 
Daniel  Webster  from  being  forgotten  by  posterity.  Neither  marble, 
nor  granite,  nor  bronze,  nor  iron,  nor  brass,  is  necessary  to  perpetu- 
ate his  fame.  It  may  be  well  said  of  him, 

"Art  to  his  fame  no  aid  hath  lent, 
His  country  is  his  monument." 

SPEECH  OF   GOVERNOR  FREDERICK  ROBIE,    OF   MAINE. 

My  Friends,  —  I  thank  you  very  much  for  this  pleasant  introduc- 
tion and  cordial  greeting.  I  am  aware  that  it  is  not  personal  in  its 
character,  but  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  I  am  here  to-day  to 
represent  the  state  of  Maine ;  and  I  am  glad  to  be  here,  and  equally 
glad  to  join  in  these  interesting  exercises.  I  bring  with  me  the 
4 


50  STATUE    OF    DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

kind  wishes  and  good  will  of  all  our  people,  and  the  congratulations 
of  the  state  for  what  you  have  done  in  honor  of  that  great  man, 
Daniel  Webster.  I  have  not  the  honor  of  being  a  son  of  New 
Hampshire,  but  on  reflection  find  that  I  can  claim  to  be  a  grand- 
son. My  father  loved  New  Hampshire  very  much,  which  sentiment 
is  appreciated  by  me.  My  father  was  born  in  Candia,  N.  H.,  in 
1782,  the  very  year  that  gave  birth  to  that  great  man,  Daniel 
Webster,  and  he  was  his  friend,  his  political  friend,  and  his  great 
admirer.  I  recollect  very  well  my  earliest  impressions  of  Daniel 
Webster,  which  were  made  by  looking  at  his  portrait,  a  steel 
engraving,  which  my  father  for  fifty  years  had  hanging  in  his 
library.  It  remains  there  to-day,  my  present  home,  and  brings  back 
many  pleasant  memories ;  and  I  am  glad  to  notice  here  in  this  beau- 
tiful city,  under  the  shadows  of  your  churches  and  schoolhouses  and 
in  front  of  your  capitol,  that  there  stands  for  the  observation  and  in- 
spiration of  the  great  public  an  enduring  life-like  statue  of  Daniel 
Webster.  Michael  Angelo  once  made  a  wonderful  statue  of  Moses 
for  one  of  the  great  cathedrals  in  Rome,  and  when  he  had  finished 
it,  it  was  so  complete  and  life-like  that  he  walked  up  to  it  and 
said  :  "  Speak,  or  I  will  break  you  into  a  thousand  pieces."  There 
was  undoubtedly  a  satisfactory  response,  for  that  statue  has  en- 
dured for  centuries,  and  even  now  speaks  in  favor  of  the  man  who 
made  it.  With  a  becoming  relationship  to  the  statue  of  the  great 
lawgiver  of  earliest  times,  this  statue  of  Daniel  Webster  is  dedi- 
cated to-day.  It  will  speak  to  coming  generations  in  language  which 
we  cannot  understand  with  the  ear  because  it  is  silent,  but  it  still 
speaks.  It  speaks  of  the  majesty  of  the  divine  decalogue  and  the 
pi-inciples  of  Christian  religion  which  were  his  guide  ;  it  speaks  for 
the  union  of  this  great  nation,  one  and  insepai'able,  for  which  he  was 
a  godlike  advocate ;  it  speaks  for  the  sovereignty  of  the  people, 
liberty,  and  constitutional  law ;  it  is  a  representative  of  the  public 
benevolence  and  progressive  civilization  of  New  England,  and  it 
speaks  for  that.  It  will  stand  beneath  the  smiles  of  heaven  in  a 
cathedral  whose  boundaries  are  the  horizon,  as  the  proud  representa- 
tive of  the  greatest  man  of  this  period.  The  statue  of  the  Egyptian 
Memnon  is  said  to  have  emitted  musical  sounds  when  first  visited  by 
the  morning  sun,  which  the  imagination  of  the  listener  was  allowed 
to  interpret.  This  statue  must  be  superior  in  influence  and  effect  to 
these  ancient  traditions,  for  from  early  morning  to  the  shade  of  even- 
ing it  will  continually  speak  to  the  people  of  New  Hampshire,  to  the 
people  of  Maine,  to  the  people  of  this  great  nation,  and  the  people 
of  the  civilized  world,  of  the  principles  which  he  advocated,  and  of 
which  he  was  the  great  and  acknowledged  exponent. 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  51 


SPEECH   OF   GOVERNOR  PINGREE,    OF   VERMONT. 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow  Citizens,  —  It  needed  not  the  invitation 
of  your  executive  committee,  sir,  to  induce  the  state  of  Vermont  to 
be  represented  here  on  an  occasion  of  this  character  and  concerning 
the  memory  of  this  great  man,  Mr.  Webster.  Grateful  as  all  her 
people  would  ever  be  to  be  represented  by  their  executive  head  on 
an  occasion  devoted  to  the  memory  of  such  a  man,  nevertheless, 
independently  of  my  official  trust  or  the  performance  of  any  official 
duty,  as  a  son  of  New  Hampshire,  as  a  native  of  the  town  of 
Salisbury,  as  one  who  attended  school  in  the  same  district  that  Mr. 
Webster  attended,  as  one  who  attended  and  afterward  taught  in  that 
town  at  the  same  academy  where  Mr.  Webster  attended  and  taught, 
as  one  of  the  New  Hampshire  men  who  pursued  his  steps  through 
their  beloved  college  at  Dartmouth,  that  has  been  so  eloquently  rep- 
resented here  to-day  in  the  person  of  our  orator  who  has  addressed 
us  on  this  occasion,  I  come  from  and  for  my  adopted  state  to  add  my 
words  to  yours  touching  this  man  of  genius  and  of  greatness  who 
belonged  to  both  states  alike.  For,  Mr.  President  and  gentlemen,  in 
representing  my  adopted  state  and  speaking  for  her,  as  well  as  in 
my  individual  love  for  the  name  and  the  history  and  the  memory 
of  Daniel  Webster,  I  may  say  that  Vermont,  the  Green  Mountain 
State  —  the  New  Hampshire  grants,  —  claims  Daniel  Webster  by 
birthright  as  much  as  the  state  of  New  Hampshire  can  claim  him. 
At  the  time  his  eyes  first  saw  light  up  there  in  the  old  town  of  Salis- 
bury, the  state  that  I  represent  was  a  part  of  your  state  which  we 
all  represent  to-day.  She,  Vermont,  the  first-born  state  of  this 
American  Union,  comes  to-day  feeling  honored  that  she  may  unite 
with  New  Hampshire,  the  last  state  that  made  the  American  Union, 
do  honor  to  the  memory  of  that  illustrious  statesman  and  to  the 
deeds  of  the  greatest  man  in  oratory,  as  has  been  stated  here,  that 
has  ever  lived  in  any  country  or  at  anytime.  And  speaking  for  my- 
self and  many  of  my  native  and  my  adopted  state,  I  can  affirm  that 
they  have  drawn  their  true  inspiration  of  country  love  —  that  pa- 
triotic devotion  that  was  so  sorely  needed  in  days  not  long  past  — 
from  those  grand  speeches  left  us  by  Mr.  Webster  more  than  from 
all  the  other  literature  our  school  days  furnished. 

From  those  majestic  appeals  for  the  integrity  and  perpetuity  of  the 
Union,  which  the  man  whom  this  statue  represents  has  left  upon  the 
pages  of  American  history,  the  men  of  your  generation  and  mine, 
Mr.  President,  have  drawn  more  of  that  patriotism  and  character 
which  insured  our  salvation  as  a  united  people  than  from  all  the  rest 
of  the  great  orations  of  our  land  and  time.  I  know  not  how,  —  in- 


52  STATUE    OF    DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

deed,  I  fear  it  were  not  possible  that  this  noble  land  of  ours  should 
stand  to-day,  having  so  successfully  withstood  all  the  assaults  that 
were  brought  to  bear  against  her,  had  it  not  been  that  the  young  men 
of  our  boyhood  days  and  later  had  imbibed  from  those  great  orations 
the  grand  political  sentiment  that  the  unity  of  these  states  and  the 
liberties  of  this  people  must  stand  or  fall  together,  and  one  could  not 
exist  without  the  other. 

That  one  outpouring  of  unstudied  and  resistless  eloquence  where 
he  deplored  the  scene  of  a  broken  Union,  or  brightened  at  the  sight 
of  a  prosperous  and  united  country,  which  Webster  left  so  appeal- 
ingly  to  the  men  of  his  time  as  well  as  to  the  unborn  generations,  to 
stand  now  and  forever  by  the  integrity  of  the  Union,  has,  to  my  ap- 
prehension, already  done  more  than  the  sayings  of  any  other  man 
towards  inspiring  "  our  young  men  fit  for  war ''  to  save  the  govern- 
ment in  her  struggle  against  the  power  of  secession.  And  that  same 
inspiration  will  reach  forward  from  that  speech  through  the  corridors 
of  time,  infusing  patriots  and  marshaling  soldiers  ever  ready  at  their 
country's  need  in  the  wars  for  freedom  and  for  the  rights  of  men. 

SPEECH   OF  HON.   JOHN   A.    BINGHAM,    OF   OHIO. 

By  the  favor  of  his  Excellency  it  is  my  high  privilege  to  partici- 
pate in  the  ceremonies  of  this  day.  I  am  not  here  for  personal  dis- 
play, but  merely  to  bear  witness  to  the  men  of  this  commonwealth  of 
the  deep  gratitude  which  I  feel  and  cherish  for  the  memory  of  the 
man  with  whose  name  and  fame  I  was  made  familiar  in  my  child- 
hood, youth,  and  manhood,  and  who  by  his  great  public  services 
commanded  my  admiration  and  became  an  idol  of  my  affection. 

Xew  Hampshire  honors  herself  by  honoring  her  most  illustrious 
son.  Now  that  Daniel  Webster  has  put  off  this  mortal  and  has  put 
on  immortality,  it  is  eminently  fitting  that  the  state  of  his  nativity 
should  at  the  porch  of  her  capitol  perpetuate  in  enduring  bi'onze  his 
majestic  form  and  features.  Those  who  saw  and  heard  this  man  of 
large  discourse,  this  matchless  statesman,  jurist,  and  orator,  in  the 
greatness  of  his  strength,  felt,  and  the  words  involuntarily  pressed 
upon  their  lips  for  utterance,  "How  noble  in  reason,  how  infinite  in 
faculties."  This  life-like  statue  of  Webster  is  for  posterity.  He 
needs  it  not.  The  dead  only  are  the  immortals  of  our  race.  They 
alone  receive  the  crown  of  an  endless  life.  Those  who  saw  and  heard 
Webster  saw  and  heard  the  man  of  their  times  who  had  taken  all 
knowledge  for  his  province,  and  lived  laborious  days  that  he  might 
do  faithfully  and  well  his  whole  duty  to  his  God,  his  country,  and 
his  race. 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  53 

To  found  and  perpetuate  our  American  nationality  with  its  consti- 
tution of  free  government  deriving  its  powers  from  the  consent  of 
the  people,  and  established  in  order  to  secure  liberty  to  all  and  jus- 
tice to  all  by  the  combined  power  of  all,  may  well  be  reckoned  as 
one  of  the  greatest  of  human  achievements. 

The  men  of  the  Revolution,  under  the  guidance  of  Washington, 
first  of  Americans  and  foremost  of  men,  who  by  his  example  gave 
new  "ardor  to  virtue,  and  new  confidence  to  truth,"  founded  our 
republic  and  drafted  its  constitution.  These  men  whom  God  taught 
to  build  for  glory  and  for  beauty,  and  who  formulated  the  fabric  of 
American  empire  with  its  centralized  power  and  decentralized  ad- 
ministration, thereby  made  us  a  nation  organized  by  the  perpetual 
union  of  thirteen  separate  and  independent  states  united  into  one, 
and  to  be  further  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  such  new  states  as 
might  thereafter  be  formed  within  the  national  domain,  subject  to 
and  restricted  by  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  funda- 
mental law  of  the  republic.  This  complex  system  of  civil  polity 
was  a  new  and  untried  experiment,  the  like  of  which  had  never  be- 
fore been  read  or  heard  of  in  human  story.  When  Washington  had 
finished  his  work,  standing  upon  the  isthmus  between  two  eternities, 
and  in  his  own  words,  was  soon  "  to  be  consigned  to  the  mansions 
of  rest,"  he  addressed  to  his  countrymen  then  in  life,  and  to  the  mil- 
lions of  his  countrymen  who  might  come  after  him,  his  farewell 
words,  wherein  he  advised  them  that  the  "unity  of  government, 
which  constitutes  us  one  people,  is  the  main  pillar  in  the  edifice  of 
our  real  independence";  that  pains  would  be  taken  and  artifices 
employed  to  weaken  in  their  minds  the  conviction  of  this  truth,  that 
our  constitution,  "perfectly  free  in  its  principles  till  changed  by  the 
explicit  and  authentic  act  of  the  whole  people,  is  sacredly  obligatory 
upon  all"  ;  and,  finally,  that  "in  proportion  as  the  structure  of  gov- 
ernment gives  force  to  public  opinion,  it  is  essential  that  public 
opinion  be  enlightened."  As  public  opinion  under  a  free  represent- 
ative government  is  mightier  than  armies,  it  is  indispensable  that  it 
be  enlightened. 

When  Washington  died,  happily  for  our  country  Webster  lived, 
and  soon  thereafter  took  his  place  in  the  national  service.  At  that 
time  and  after,  designing,  ambitious  men,  careless  of  their  country's 
welfare  and  of  the  interests  of  mankind,  aggressively  began  the 
work  of  disunion  by  disseminating  among  the  people  the  theoiy  that 
there  was  no  American  nationality ;  that  what  was  called  the  consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  was  in  fact  not  a  constitution,  but  a 
league,  a  compact,  a  confederation  merely  between  the  several  states 
thereof ;  that  each  state  retained  its  separate  sovereignty  and  inde- 


54  STATUE    OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

pendence ;  that  the  government  of  the  United  States  was  but  the 
agent  of  the  states,  and  was  created  by  the  states,  and  subject  at  any 
time  to  be  abrogated  by  the  several  states,  and  the  separate  action 
of  all  or  any  one  of  said  states.  Of  the  falsity  of  this  theoiy,  and 
the  peril  and  disaster  which  must  result  from  it  if  accepted  by  the 
people  and  carried  into  effect,  it  was  New  Hampshire's  great  son 
who  warned  and  instructed  the  people  as  no  other  man  of  his  day 
did  or  could  warn  or  instruct  them.  With  the  prescience  of  a  seer 
Webster  saw  clearly  and  foretold  what  must  come  of  this  theory  if 
acted  upon  by  one  or  more  of  the  states  of  the  Union.  More  than 
any  man  of  his  day  he  was  the  educator  of  the  people  on  all  the 
questions  involved  touching  the  powers  of  the  national  government 
and  the  reserved  powers  of  the  states.  In  the  great  debates  in  the 
senate  in  1830-33,  he  gave  utterance  to  his  thoughts  in  defense  of 
the  supremacy  of  the  constitution  and  in  exposition  of  the  constitu- 
tion, which  fell  upon  the  nation's  mind  like  a  prophet's  words,  and 
found  their  way  into  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  convinced  them 
that  the  people  of  all  the  states  and  all  the  territories  of  the  Union 
were  a  nation,  were  one  people,  with  one  government,  one  country, 
and  one  destiny ;  that  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  was  es- 
tablished and  ordained  by  the  people  thereof,  and  not  by  the  states ; 
that  it  is  what  it  is  declared  on  its  face  to  be,  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  —  not  a  league  or  compact,  but  the 
constitution,  the  fundamental  and  supreme  law  of  the  land,  sacredly 
obligatory  upon  every  state  and  territory,  and  upon  the  people  of 
every  state  and  territory  in  the  Union ;  that  no  state  had  color  of  au- 
thority to  secede  from  the  Union,  or  to  nullify  the  constitution  or 
any  law  of  the  United  States,  or  to  pass  any  statute  or  ordinance  in 
conflict  with  the  nation's  constitution  and  laws.  Webster  clearly 
comprehended  the  righteousness  there  is  in  right  understanding,  and 
therefore  exerted  his  great  powers  to  educate  the  whole  people  and 
possess  them  of  the  right  understanding  of  their  national  constitution 
and  of  their  duties  and  obligations  thei'eunder.  In  the  performance 
of  this  service  he  did  more  than  any  other  American  citizen  since 
Washington  to  form  and  enlighten  the  public  opinion  of  the  United 
States  in  regard  to  their  constitution  and  govemment,  to  the  nation's 
rights  thereunder,  and  to  the  duties,  rights,  and  obligations  of  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Webster,  in  his  masterly  and  conclusive  argument  in  reply  to 
Mr.  Calhoun,  the  chief est  and  ablest  of  the  advocates  of  the  theory  of 
state  sovereignty  and  the  alleged  right  of  states  severally  to  secede 
from  the  Union  and  nullify  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  nation, 
demonstrated  as  clearly  as  it  is  possible  for  human  reason  to  demon- 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  55 

strate  any  proposition  within  the  compass  of  the  human  understand- 
ing, that  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  is  a  national,  funda- 
mental law,  ordained  by  the  people  of  the  United  States,  essential  to 
the  nation's  life,  and  is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  anything  in  the 
constitution  and  laws  of  any  state  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 
Among  other  weighty  words,  he  said  what  the  people  have  since  af- 
firmed and  made  good,  that  in  the  constitution  it  is  the  people  who 
speak,  and  not  the  states ;  that  the  maintenance  of  the  constitution  does 
not  depend  on  the  plighted  faith  of  the  states  as  states  to  support  it ; 
but  that  it  relies  on  individual  duty  and  individual  obligation  ;  .  .  . 
that  if  the  friends  of  nullification  should  give  practical  effect  to  their 
opinions,  they  would  prove  themselves  the  most  skillful  architects  of 
ruin,  the  most  effectual  extinguishers  of  high-raised  expectations, 
the  greatest  blasters  of  human  hopes  that  any  age  has  produced. 
"The  people,"  said  he,  "will  stand  fast  by  the  constitution  and 
by  those  who  defend  it.  ...  I  shall  exert  every  faculty  I 
possess  in  aiding  to  prevent  the  constitution  from  being  nullified, 
destroyed,  or  impaired,  and  even  should  I  see  it  fall,  I  will  still, 
with  a  voice  feeble,  perhaps,  but  earnest  as  ever  issued  from  human 
lips,  call  on  the  people  to  come  to  the  rescue." 

Webster's  prajTer  was,  that  in  his  expiring  moments  he  might  not 
see  a  land  rent  with  civil  feuds  and  drenched  in  fraternal  blood, 
or  look  upon  the  broken  and  dishonored  fragments  of  a  once  glori- 
ous Union.  His  prayer  was  granted ;  he  passed  to  his  rest  before 
that  fearful  conflict  burst  upon  the  country,  when  our  sun  went  down 
at  mid-noon,  and  night  and  storm  and  thick  darkness  fell  upon  the 
nation,  and  the  land  was  rent  with  civil  feuds,  and  the  foundations 
of  the  republic  rocked  beneath  the  earthquake  shock  of  battle.  In 
that  supreme  moment  of  peril  to  the  nation,  its  constitution,  and  laws, 
the  people,  not  unmindful  of  Webster's  words  that  the  people 
would  stand  by  their  constitution  and  that  he  called  upon  them  to 
come  to  its  rescue,  did  come  in  their  might  to  its  rescue. 

"  They  came  as  the  winds  come  when  forests  are  rended, 
They  came  as  the  waves  come  when  navies  are  stranded." 

The  loyal,  faithful  people  made  a  sublime  sacrifice  in  defense  of 
the  nation,  its  constitution  and  laws ;  more  than  three  hundred 
thousand  of  them  gave  up  their  lives  in  the  fierce  conflict  that  their 
country  might  live,  and  by  their  virtue,  their  valor,  and  their  self- 
sacrifice  they  made  their  death  beautiful.  They  conquered  a  peace 
for  their  country ;  they  vindicated  the  nation's  rights  and  maintained 
the  supremacy  of  the  nation's  constitution  and  laws.  It  was  a  vie- 


56  STATUE    OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

tory  for  the  whole  country,  for  liberty,  for  justice,  and  for  humanity. 
Webster,  by  his  never-to-be-forgotten  instructions  and  thoughts,  as 
clearly  contributed  to  this  victory  of  the  people  as  did  Grant,  the 
hero  of  the  century,  by  his  sword.  The  constitution,  re-formed  and 
maintained,  is  still  supreme  over  all  the  land.  It  embodies  the 
democracy  of  the  New  Testament,  —  liberty,  fraternity,  and  equality. 
The  Union  stands  undivided  and  unbroken,  more  firmly  established 
than  at  any  time  in  our  history.  The  republic  stands  secure,  known 
and  honored  throughout  the  earth,  numbering  sixty  millions  of 
freemen,  and  covering  the  continent  from  ocean  to  ocean.  It  looks 
out  on  Europe  from  its  eastern  and  on  Asia  from  its  western  shore. 
May  the  republic,  saved  by  suffering  and  sacrifice  and  martyrdom, 
be  perpetual. 

ODE   TO   DANIEL    WEBSTER,    BY    WILLIAM    C.     SHEPPARD,    OP    NORTH 
SCITUATE,    MASS.,    A  NATIVE   OF  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

O  fair  New  Hampshire's  noblest  son, 
The  mighty,  glorious,  and  great, 
Most  cherished  of  thy  native  state, 

The  immortal  and  the  godlike  one  ! 

To  thee  we  rear  the  modest  token 

Of  love  and  gratitude  and  praise, 
And  offer  speech  and  song  and  lays, 

But  speak  and  sing  in  accents  broken. 

We  praise  thee  for  thy  strong  right  arm, 
On  which  the  nation  leaned  secure ; 
Thy  heart,  so  tender,  fond,  and  pure, 

That  loved  her  with  a  love  so  warm ; 

And  for  thy  tongue  so  eloquent 
And  full  of  sweetest  melody, 
Whose  tones  rang  out  from  sea  to  sea, 

Enrapturing  a  continent. 

Thy  hand  Columbia's  lyre  swept  o'er, 
And  made  all  jarring  notes  agree  ; 
Awoke  the  strains  of  liberty 

And  unity  forevermore. 


THE    DEDICATION    EXERCISES.  57 

What  though  thy  body  's  by  the  sea, 

Beneath  the  Pilgrims'  hallowed  hill  ? 
Thou  ever  livest,  livest  still, 

Enshrined  in  grateful  memory ! 

Within  thine  arms  the  nation  lies ; 

Thy  mighty  heart-throbs  yet  she  feels ; 

And  still  the  same  thy  music  peals 
Throughout  the  land,  along  the  skies  ! 

Descend,  ascend,  ye  cherubim, 

Upon  the  ladder  of  his  glory, 

And  bear  aloft  to  God  the  story, 
Our  thanksgiving  for  the  gift  of  him  — 

Him  !  him  !  Columbia's  greatest  son, 
The  mighty,  glorious,  and  grand, 
Most  cherished  of  his  native  land,  — 

The  godlike  and  immortal  one  ! 

After  the  reading  of  the  ode  by  its  author,  the  Handel 
Society  of  Dartmouth  College  sang  "Integer  Vitce"  very 
beautifully. 

INTEGER  VITJfc. 

"  Integer  vitse  scelerisque  purus 
Non  eget  Mauris  jaculis,  neque  arcu, 
Nee  venenatis  giavida  sagittis, 
Fusee,  Pharetra; 

Sive  per  Syrtes  iter  testuosas, 
Sive  facturus  per  inhospitalem 
Caucasum,  vel  quae  loca  fabulosus 
Lambit  Hydaspes. 

Namque  me  silva  lupus  in  Sabina, 
Dum  meam  canto  Lalagen,  et  ultra 
Terminum  curis  vagor  expeditis 
Fugit  inermem ; 


58 


STATUE    OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 


Quale  portentum  neque  militaris 
Daunias  latis  alit  aesculetis, 
Nee  Jubae  tellus  generat,  leonum 
Arida  nutrix. 

Pone  me,  pigris  ubi  nulla  campis 
Arbor  aestiva  recreatur  aura, 
Quod  latus  mundi  nebulae  malusque 
Juppiter  urget ; 

Pone  sub  curru  minium  propinqui 
Solis,  in  terra  domibus  negata : 
Dulce  ridentem  Lalagen  amabo, 
Dulce  loquentem." 

—  Horace,  Book  I.,  Ode  22. 


MEMBERS   OF   THE    HANDEL    SOCIETY    WHO    SANG   AT   THE    WEBSTER 
MONUMENT   UNVEILING. 


R.  G.  Brown, 
A.  H.  Chase, 
K.  H.  Goodwin, 
A.  H.  Hale, 


F.  P.  Brackett, 

G.  W.  Glass, 
E.  B.  Hale, 


'86  Seniors. 

E.  S.  Hill, 
E.  J.  Hatch, 
W.  P.  Kelley, 

E.  P.  Pitman, 

' '87  Juniors. 

F.  A.  Rowland, 
W.  D.  Quint, 
J.  C.  Simpson, 


W.  Sampson, 
H.  W.  Thurston, 
F.  T.  Vaughan. 


A.  J.  Thomas, 
F.  J.  Urquhart. 


'88  Sophomores. 
F.  H.  Chase,  R.  N.  Fairbanks. 


J.  I.  Buck, 
F.  L.  Bugbee, 
A.  Chase,  Jr., 


'89  Freshmen. 

C.  B.  Curtis, 
E.  B.  Davis, 
W.  P.  Hale, 


L.  H.  Ingham, 
E.  L.  Williamson. 


ADDENDA. 


At  the  conclusion  of  the  exercises  in  state-house  park, 
the  guests  of  the  state  were  escorted  to  the  Eagle  Hotel, 
where  a  banquet  was  served.  His  Excellency  Governor 
Moody  Currier  presided,  and  grace  was  said  by  President 
Samuel  C.  Bartlett.  There  were  no  speeches  at  this  time. 

During  the  day  Hon.  George  W.  Nesmith  received  the 
following  greeting,  by  telegraph,  from  the  Bunker  Hill 
Monument  Association,  through  its  president: 

BOSTON,  June  17,  1886. 
HON.  GEORGE  W.  NESMITH,  President,  Concord,  N.  H. : — 

The  Bunker  Hill  Monument  Association,  assembled  at  its  annual  meet- 
ing upon  the  one  hundred  and  eleventh  anniversary  of  the  battle,  con- 
gratulates the  people  of  New  Hampshire  upon  the  erection  and  dedica- 
tion of  a  statue  of  Daniel  Webster  this  day  at  the  capital  of  their  state. 

Holding  in  grateful  remembrance  his  services  on  its  own  behalf,  the 
Association  cordially  unites  in  every  honor  to  the  memory  of  this  illustri- 
ous citizen,  statesman,  and  patriot. 

CHAS.  DEVENS,  President. 

The  reply  of  Mr.  Nesmith  was  as  follows : 

CONCORD,  N.  H.,  June  17,  1886. 
THE  HON.  CHARLES  DEVENS,  Preset  Bunker  Hill  Monument  Association, 

Boston,  Mass. : — 

New  Hampshire  receives  with  gratification  the  congratulatory  despatch 
from  your  Association.  Mr.  Webster's  fame,  though  broad  as  the  Union, 
is  specially  identified  with  the  glory  of  his  native  state,  and  with  the  glory 
of  the  state  of  his  adoption.  It  will  live  as  long  as  the  morning  light 
shall  gild  the  monumental  shaft  which  his  eloquence  twice  consecrated, 
or  as  the  light  of  parting  day  shall  linger  and  play  upon  its  summit. 

GEO.  W.  NESMITH,  President. 


MEETING  OF   DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE  ALUMNI. 

At  a  fully  attended  meeting  of  the  Dartmouth  College 
alumni  of  Concord,  May  10, 1886,  at  which  Hon.  J.  Everett 
Sargent,  class  of  1840,  presided,  the  subject  of  holding  a 
reunion  of  the  alumni,  in  connection  with  the  dedication 
exercises,  was  considered,  and  a  committee  of  arrangements 
was  appointed  as  follows :  Henry  J.  Crippen,  class  of  1861 ; 
Frank  S.  Streeter,  Esq.,  class  of  1874;  Henry  M.  French, 
M.  D.,  class  of  1876 ;  John  P.  George,  Esq.,  class  of  1878 ; 
Edward  N.  Pearson,  class  of  1881.  The  committee  subse- 
quently organized  by  choosing  Frank  S.  Streeter  chairman, 
and  Henry  J.  Crippen  treasurer. 


SKETCH  OF  BENJAMIN  PIERCE  CHENEY. 


BENJAMIN  PIERCE  CHENEY. 


"  Honor  and  shame  from  no  condition  rise  ;  — 
Act  well  your  part,  there  all  the  honor  lies." 

BENJAMIN  PIERCE  CHENEY,  to  whose  munificence  his 
native  state  of  New  Hampshire  is  indebted  for  the  pos- 
session of  a  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  equal  if  not  supe- 
rior as  a  work  of  art  to  any  similar  memorial  of  her 
great  statesman,  traces  his  lineage  back  to  Tristram 
Cheney,  who  was  born  in  Roxbury,  Mass.,  in  1720,  and 
who  after  several  removals  finally  died  at  Barnet,  Yt.,  in 
1815,  at  the  age  of  ninety-five  years. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  the  eldest  of  eight  chil- 
dren, and  was  born  August  12,  1815,  in  the  town  of 
Hillsborough,  N.  II.  His  father,  Jesse  Cheney,  was  by 
trade  and  occupation  a  blacksmith,  and  became  embar- 
rassed in  his  circumstances  as  the  result  of  being  surety 
for  a  neighbor  on  an  official  bond.  The  maiden  name  of 
his  mother  was  Alice  Steele.  His  parents  were  married 
November  25,  1813.  His  father  was  born  in  the  town  of 
Antrim,  1ST.  H.,  October  3,  1788,  and  died  in  the  city  of 
Manchester,  K  H.,  June  22,  1863.  His  mother  was 
born  in  Antrim,  N".  H.,  August  12,  1791,  and  died  at 
Manchester,  July  28,  1849.  Mr.  Cheney  was  named  in 


62  STATUE    OF    DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

honor  of  his  father's  neighbor,  Gov.  Benjamin  Pierce, 
father  of  President  Franklin  Pierce. 

The  early  part  of  the  current  century  was  a  primitive 
period  in  the  history  of  the  Granite  State.  New  Hamp- 
shire was  then  almost  purely  an  agricultural  community. 
The  railroad  was  not,  nor  the  electric  telegraph.  The 
cotton  mill  was  unknown  in  her  borders.  The  state  was 
largely  a  rural  district,  but  her  inland  towns  were  as  a 
whole  quite  as  populous  then  as  now.  Gov.  Pierce  pre- 
sented his  young  namesake  with  three  cosset  sheep  for 
his  name.  Such  a  gift  was  specially  appropriate  in  a 
pastoral  community. 

The  embarrassed  circumstances  of  his  father  made  it 
necessary  for  the  boy  to  exert  himself  for  his  own  and 
the  family's  support.  At  the  early  age  of  ten  years  he 
was  employed  in  his  father's  shop ;  then  in  a  tavern  in 
Francestown,  N.  H. ;  and  later  in  a  store  in  the  same 
town.  But  indoor  life  proving  destructive  to  his  health, 
he  purchased  his  time  from  his  father,  and  commencing 
at  the  age  of  sixteen  he  drove  the  stage  from  Keene  to 
Nashua  and  Exeter,  driving  fifty  miles  a  day  without  the 
loss  of  a  trip  for  six  consecutive  years.  Among  the  pas- 
sengers in  his  stage-coach  was  Daniel  Webster,  who  saw 
in  Mr.  Cheney  "the  promise  and  potency"  of  the  highly 
successful,  energetic,  and  public-spirited  business  man 
and  citizen  which  he  ultimately  became.  Mr.  Webster 
took  so  much  interest  in  young  Cheney  that  upon  his 
going  into  the  express  business  he  wrote  out  and  pre- 
sented to  him,  in  his  own  handwriting,  the  laws  relating 
to  common  carriers.  Mr.  Cheney  always  held  his  illus- 
trious friend  in  grateful  remembrance,  and  finally  deter- 


BENJAMIN    PIERCE    CHENEY.  63 

mined  to  give  to  his  native  state  a  statue  of  him,  which 
purpose  and  intention  were  so  happily  fulfilled  on  the 
seventeenth  day  of  June  of  the  current  year  (1886). 

"While  Mr.  Cheney  was  engaged  as  a  stage-driver  the 
Boston  &  Lowell  Railroad  was  opened.  This  was  one  of 
the  initial  railroads,  and  helped  to  inaugurate  the  rail- 
road system  of  the  country.  In  1842  railroads  were 
extended  to  Concord,  N.  H.  Then  it  was  that  Mr.  Che- 
ney embarked  upon  this  recently  opened  railroad  line  in 
the  express  business,  of  which  he  was  the  principal  pio- 
neer and  founder,  and  which  under  his  direction  and 
management  has  been  expanded  from  a  merely  local  into 
a  continental  business. 

The  various  express  companies  inaugurated  and  man- 
aged by  Mr.  Cheney,  commencing  with  the  local  express 
between  Boston  and  Concord,  N.  H.,  and  subsequently 
extending  over  this  route  to  Canada  and  the  "West,  have 
now  been  consolidated  with  the  American  Express  Com- 
pany, of  which  Mr.  Cheney  is  still  one  of  the  executive 
officers.  It  is  in  connection  with  these  enterprises  that 
his  name  is  most  familiar  to  the  business  men  of  New 
England,  but  he  has  been  specially  prominent  throughout 
the  country  in  the  inauguration  and  management  of  the 
Overland  Mail,  "Wells  &  Fargo's  Express,  the  Atchison, 
Topeka  &  Santa  Fe,  Northern  Pacific,  Mexican  Central, 
and  Vermont  Central  railroads,  and  he  is  to-day  a  direc- 
tor in  nearly  all  of  these  corporations,  as  well  as  of  the 
Northern  (N.  H.)  Railroad.  Mr.  Cheney's  career  em- 
braces the  commencement  and  development  of  the  rail- 
road system  in  this  country.  It  extends  back  to  the  days 
of  the  old  stage-coach  and  the  freight  wagon. 


64  STATUE    OF    DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

During  his  active  life  the  California  gold  mines  were 
discovered,  and  the  electric  telegraph  was  invented.  He 
has  been  connected  with  and  taken  advantage  of  many  of 
the  wonderful  improvements  which  characterize  the  world 
of  to-day.  He  has  lived  in  an  age  of  wonderful  opportu- 
nities, and  has  availed  himself  of  them.  Beside  his  gift 
of  the  Webster  statue  and  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  to 
Dartmouth  College,  he  has  manifested  in  many  ways  pri- 
vately a  beneficence  even  more  honorable  to  him  as  a 
man  than  any  instances  of  his  public  munificence. 

Mr.  Cheney  was  married  June  6, 1865,  to  Elizabeth  S., 
daughter  of  Asahel  Clapp,  a  former  well-known  mer- 
chant of  Concord,  X.  H.  Three  daughters  and  two  sons 
are  the  fruits  of  this  marriage.  Mr.  Cheney  has  a  large 
and  elegant  farm  in  Wellesley,  Mass.,  where  he  and  his 
devoted  wife  make  their  happy  summer  home  specially 
attractive  in  dispensing  a  free  and  constant  hospitality. 
His  private  and  public  acts  of  liberality  have  endeared 
him  to  hosts  of  friends,  and  no  man,  either  in  his  native 
state  or  the  state  of  his  adoption,  can  boast  of  more  gen- 
eral rejoicing  at  his  prosperity,  or  a  more  sincere  desire 
that  a  long  and  happy  life  may  be  vouchsafed  to  him. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  DARTMOUTH  ALUMNI. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  DARTMOUTH  ALUMNI. 


THE  gathering  of  the  graduates  of  Dartmouth  College 
exceeded  in  every  respect  anything  in  the  history  of  the 
college.  The  alumni  headquarters  were  established  in 
the  Representatives'  Hall,  where,  during  the  day,  between 
three  hundred  and  four  hundred  names  were  enrolled. 
The  oldest  class  represented  was  1832,  and  from  that  date 
to  the  present  it  was  stated  that  only  one  class  failed  to 
have  a  representative.  At  four  o'clock  the  graduates 
formed  in  procession  in  the  western  portion  of  the  state- 
house  park,  under  the  marshalship  of  Albert  S.  Batchel- 
lor,  of  Littleton,  of  1872.  The  roll  of  classes  was  called, 
and  the  oldest  alumnus  was  given  the  head  of  the  col- 
umn. He  was  followed  by  those  of  succeeding  dates,  the 
line  being  closed  by  nearly  a  hundred  undergraduates 
who  came  from  Hanover  in  a  special  train.  As  the  pro- 
cession passed  down  State  and  up  Pleasant  street  on  its 
way  to  the  rink,  where  the  meeting  was  to  be  held,  sharp 
lookout  was  kept  to  discover  any  alumnus  who  happened 
not  to  be  in  the  line.  When  any  such  was  seen  many 
lusty  voices  would  call  for  him,  and  the  ranks  would  be 
opened  to  receive  him.  In  the  rink,  tables  extended 
throughout  the  floor,  with  an  official  one  at  right  angles 
at  the  head.  In  the  galleries  were  a  large  number  of 


68  STATUE    OF    DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

spectators,  personal  friends  of  the  graduates.  At  the 
head  of  the  table  sat  Hon.  Walbridge  A.  Field,  of  Bos- 
ton, the  president  of  the  meeting.  On  his  right  was  the 
chaplain,  Rev.  E.  0.  Jameson,  of  1855,  of  Millis,  Mass., 
and  next  the  orator,  Hon.  Mellen  Chamberlain,  of  1844, 
of  Boston.  On  the  left  of  the  president  was  the  toast- 
master,  Hon.  George  A.  Marden,  of  1861,  of  Lowell. 
When  Mr.  Field  rose  to  call  the  meeting  to  order  it  was 
evident  that  he  was  deeply  impressed  by  the  number  and 
character  of  the  large  assembly. 

Grace  was  said  by  Rev.  E.  O.  Jameson,  after  which  an 
hour  was  devoted  to  the  dinner.  After  cigars  had  been 
lighted,  Judge  Field  introduced  the  orator,  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain, who  on  rising  was  greeted  with  earnest  applause. 

JUDGE  CHAMBERLAIN'S  ORATION. 

I  am  sure,  Mr.  President,  that  the.  alumni  of  Dartmouth  College 
desire,  first  of  all,  to  express  to  his  Excellency  the  Governor,  and  to 
the  honorable  council  of  the  state  of  New  Hampshire,  their  grateful 
sense  of  the  privilege  of  participating  in  the  dedication  of  a  statue 
of  Daniel  Webster  on  his  native  soil ;  and  to  add  that  they  regard 
the  selection  of  the  president  of  the  college  for  the  part  which  he 
has  performed  in  these  interesting  ceremonies  with  distinguished 
success,  as  a  manifestation  of  good  will  by  the  state  to  the  college 
which  is  appreciated  by  all  its  friends. 

The  relations  of  the  college  to  the  state  are  peculiar.  As  a  cor- 
poration it  is  older  than  the  state ;  for  the  charter  of  the  college, 
which  is  still  the  basis  and  measure  of  its  rights,  and  irrevocable  ex- 
cept for  cause,  came  from  George  the  Third  when  New  Hampshire 
was  a  royal  province,  without  charter,  and  governed  under  the  king's 
commission,  which  was  revocable  at  his  pleasure. 

To-day  we  witness  an  extraordinary  proceeding.  The  state  ac- 
cepts as  a  gift  from  an  estimable  and  loyal  citizen,  and  with  the 
according  voices  of  thousands  of  other  citizens  also  loyal,  sets  up  in 
a  conspicuous  place  before  the  most  august  symbol  of  its  authority, 
a  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  to  whom  more  than  to  any  other  man 
is  due  that  construction  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  which 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    DARTMOUTH    ALUMNI.  69 

overthrew  a  legislative  act  of  the  sovereign  state  of  New  Hampshire, 
reversed  the  solemn  decision  of  its  highest  judicial  tribunal,  and 
erected  within  its  jui'isdiction  an  imperium  in  imperio  which  will 
endure  as  long  as  the  constitution  endures. 

And  it  is  well ;  for  the  state  and  the  college  have  been  mutually 
helpful.  The  state  has  been  the  benefactor  of  the  college;  and  if 
not  munificent  when  compared  with  more  opulent  states,  yet  liberal 
in  a  degree  honorable  to  a  government  which  derived  its  revenues 
from  a  people  without  profitable  industries  until  the  stimulus  of 
foreign  capital  had  aroused  the  slumbering  giant  of  the  Merrimack, 
and  whose  agricultural  interests  rapidly  declined  when  canals  and 
railroads  opened  the  markets  of  the  East  to  the  disastrous  competi- 
tion of  the  more  fertile  West. 

But  now  a  new  era  has  begun.  Necessity  has  developed  a  new 
industry.  Thrift  and  the  near  approach  of  hunger  have  stimulated 
the  conversion  of  pure  air  and  mountain  scenery  into  merchantable 
commodities,  happily  indispensable  to  the  sweltering  corn-growers 
and  pork-packers  of  the  malarial  prairies.  A  retributive  corner  has 
been  made,  — reasonably  permanent,  if  we  may  rely  upon  the  provi- 
dentially slow  growth  of  mountains,  and  remunerative,  we  hope, 
4<  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice."  These  inspiring  facts  open  a 
vista.  In  the  distance  the  college  is  seen  reveling  in  opulence. 

If  the  state  has  been  liberal  according  to  her  means,  the  college 
has  recognized  her  reciprocal  obligations,  and  met  them  with  prompt- 
itude and  efficiency.  Erase  from  the  state's  roll  of  honor,  of  which 
she  is  justly  proud,  the  names  of  those  sons  of  Dartmouth  who  have 
gained  distinction  in  science,  in  jurisprudence,  and  in  public  affairs, 
and  the  place  of  New  Hampshire  would  be  less  conspicuous  than  it 
now  is  among  her  sister  states.  Give  back  to  unlettered  drudgery 
those  undistinguished  sons  of  Dartmouth  who  with  minds  quickened 
by  liberal  studies  have  followed  their  professions  on  hillsides,  or  in 
sequestered  valleys,  —  narrow,  but  necessary  fields  of  labor,  —  and 
there  would  be  a  manifest  decline  of  intelligence,  good  judgment, 
and  moral  sense  in  those  communities. 

I  do  not  purpose  to  dwell  on  those  special  relations  of  Daniel 
Webster  to  the  college,  to  which  I  have  adverted  ;  but  in  the  general 
relations  of  debt  and  credit  between  the  college  and  the  people  of 
the  state,  Daniel  Webster  was  included.  Born  remote  from  the 
centers  of  civilization  and  culture,  and  without  the  means  of  access 
to  them,  there  was  danger,  and  in  his  case,  from  temperament, 
special  danger,  lest  he  would  grow  up  in  obscurity,  and  add  one  more 
to  the  large  number  of  richly  endowed  but  imperfectly  educated  men 
of  which  New  Hampshire  was  full,  who  gave  to  the  wilderness 


70  STATUE    OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

powers  which  might  have  made  them  conspicuous  on  any  theater  of 
action.  More  than  most  men  of  anything  like  his  intellectual  force, 
Daniel  Webster  needed  the  stimulus  of  education  and  the  prospect 
of  a  career.  This  needed  help  was  just  what  the  college  gave.  She 
opened  the  mine,  she  laid  bare  the  ore,  —  abundant,  massive,  pure, 
—  and  set  it  free,  as  currency  bearing  the  royal  stamp  of  genius, 
to  enrich  the  wisdom  of  the  people  and  the  English  speech  of  the 
Avorld.  This  was  his  chief  debt  to  the  college. 

Apart  from  AVebster's  natural  endowments,  no  one  was  more 
"  heinously  unprovided,"  as  he  said,  with  education  or  pecuniary 
means  "to  break  into  college."  Luckily,  it  was  not  far  to  seek; 
otherwise  he  might  never  have  found  it.  But  he  sought  it  and 
entered.  When  there,  unlike  Bacon  and  Milton  at  English  Cam- 
bridge, he  made  no  complaint  of  the  education  it  afforded.  It  was 
the  best  he  was  prepared  to  receive,  and  both  parties  were  satisfied. 
She  gave  him  all  she  had  to  give,  and  with  all  her  requirements  he 
cheerfully  complied.  Both  were  young  together,  both  were  poor, 
and  both  struggling  to  gain  a  foothold  on  bare  creation.  It  is  idle, 
but  we  may  guess  if  we  will,  how  much  and  in  what  respects  Web- 
ster might  have  been  greater,  had  he,  after  the  preparatory  training 
of  such  schools  as  Eton  or  Winchester,  been  educated  at  Oxford  or 
Cambridge,  with  their  splendid  libraries,  their  exact  scholarship, 
their  impressive  antiquity,  and  the  stimulating  influence  of  the  long 
lines  of  their  illustrious  graduates. 

Such  were  the  relations  to  the  college  of  Daniel  Webster  as  an 
undergraduate.  He  was  greatly  in  her  debt.  But  there  came  a  time 
Avhen  all  this  was  changed,  —  an  hour  when  her  need  was  sore  and 
pressing,  and  his  help  was  seasonable  and  adequate ;  an  hour  when 
he  repaid  the  unforgotten  debt  of  his  youth ;  when  he  secured  im- 
mortality for  her,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  his  own. 

But,  gentlemen,  I  must  not  forget  even  in  this  presence  that  there 
are  other  claims  than  ours  to  Daniel  Webster.  He  was  a  son  of 
New  Hampshire,  and  he  was  the  foremost  man  of  his  country.  Of 
all  the  great  Americans  of  this  century,  perhaps  of  any  century,  he 
was  the  most  genuinely  and  thoroughly  American  ;  of  all,  most  un- 
doubtedly a  product  of  our  soil,  climate,  institutions,  and  modes  of 
life.  He  owed  much  to  the  state  of  his  birth,  but  he  owed  nothing 
to  any  other  state.  He  owed  much  to  his  New  Hampshire  ancestors ; 
but  to  them,  and  to  them  alone,  was  he  indebted  for  his  rich  inhei'it- 
ance.  In  him  there  was  no  intermixture  of  nationalities ;  no  cross- 
ing of  plebeian  with  patrician  blood.  His  pedigree  was  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  as  pure  as  the  air  he  breathed.  Unlike  Morris,  Gal- 
latin,  and  Hamilton,  he  was  born  on  our  soil.  His  forefathers  were 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    DARTMOUTH   ALUMNI.  71 

also  born  on  it,  unlike  the  ancestors  of  some  of  those  who  in  Revolu- 
tionary days  rendered  illustrious  services  to  the  country.  For  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years  they  had  lived  in  New  Hampshire.  Into 
them  had  entered  the  cold  blasts  from  the  polar  circle,  and  the  fierce 
heats  which  seemed  to  have  strayed  from  the  tropics.  Every  drop 
of  their  blood,  every  fiber  of  their  flesh,  every  bone  and  sinew,  had 
become  Americanized.  For  five  generations,  not  from  the  safe  re- 
treats of  garrisoned  settlements,  but  on  the  skirmish  line  of  civiliza- 
tion, they  had  waged  strenuous  war  with  barbarism,  and  changed 
the  wilderness  into  habitable  abodes  of  men. 

To  all  these  transforming  influences  Daniel  Webster  was  fortu- 
nately heir.  We  of  New  Hampshire  think  that  he  was  also  fortunate 
in  the  place  of  his  birth.  The  glory  of  a  state,  sir,  is  in  its  men; 
—  not  in  its  broad  acres  ;  not  in  its  fertile  soil ;  not  in  its  rich  mines ; 
but  in  its  men.  That  is  a  great  state  which  produces  great  men, 
and  virile  were  the  loins  that  begat  the  Websters,  the  Starks,  the 
Langdons,  the  Bartletts,  the  Smiths,  the  Bells,  the  Pierces,  the 
Woodburys,  the  Casses,  the  —  but  I  need  a  day  for  the  rest. 

Without  doubt  Daniel  Webster  was  fortunate  in  the  place  of  his 
birth,  — in  sight  of  the  majestic  mountains  ;  not  far  from  the  beauti- 
ful river ;  the  mountains  in  their  grandeur,  the  type  of  his  character ; 
the  river  in  its  reserved  strength,  no  unfit  emblem  of  his  life.  In 
this  pure  air,  full  of  light  reflected  from  the  purple  hills,  —  himself 
made  thoughtful  by  the  nearness  of  dark  forests  and  the  sound  of 
distant  waterfalls,  feeding  his  imagination  with  traditions  of  Rogers, 
Putnam,  and  Stark,  the  old  French  war  rangers,  and  of  Cilley, 
Scammell,  and  Poor,  his  father's  compatriots  in  arms  during  the  war 
of  the  Revolution,  —  Daniel  Webster  gathered  his  scanty  education, 
a  genuine  son  of  New  Hampshire.  Here  he  was  born.  Here  he 
"mewed  his  mighty  youth."  Here  he  clothed  himself  with  glorious 
manhood.  He  owed  little  to  other  forms  of  civilization.  His  mind, 
his  chai'acter,  and  his  personality,  his  thoughts,  and  his  style  of  their 
expression  were  of  New  Hampshire.  His  latest  political  and  con- 
stitutional principles  bore  the  impress  of  his  earliest.  When  he 
left  his  native  state  he  was  a  complete  man.  He  gained  little  or 
nothing  that  was  essential  by  association  with  communities  more 
cultured  than  those  he  left  behind  him.  These  were  of  the  sea; 
those  were  of  the  mountains.  Not  always  in  accord  with  the  domi- 
nant political  party  of  his  native  state,  he  was  more  nearly  so  than 
with  the  extreme  Federalists  of  New  England. 

Thus  was  he  born,  so  was  he  reared,  and  such  he  remained,  —  a 
true  and  loyal  son  of  New  Hampshire.  She  claims  him  as  her  own. 
With  all  his  great  qualities  she  claims  him ;  she  claims  him  with  all 


72  STATUE    OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

his  faults.  He  had  faults,  but  she  forgave  them  in  that  hour  when 
he  defended  the  constitution ;  she  forgot  them  —  forgot  them  all 
and  forever  —  when  she  beheld  the  Union  made  one  and  inseparable 
by  the  inspiration  of  his  prevailing  eloquence. 

Her  son,  this  complete  man,  bone  of  her  bone  and  flesh  of  her 
flesh,  she  gave  to  the  country.  Few  states  ever  had  such  a  son  to 
offer.  Fortunate  the  country  which  receives  such  a  gift.  Costly  as 
it  was,  it  was  given  without  reserve  and  for  all  the  ages.  New 
Hampshire  is  neither  able  nor  desires  to  recall  it.  She  cannot 
reclaim  his  wisdom  embedded  in  the  constitution.  She  would  not 
unloose  the  golden  cord  of  patriotism  with  which  he  bound  the  states 
in  perpetual  union. 

More  than  threescore  years  and  ten  have  passed  since  Daniel 
Webster,  in  the  prime  of  his  manhood  and  in  the  fullness  of  his 
great  powers,  went  forth  from  New  Hampshire  to  the  service  of  his 
country.  What  those  services  were  is  known  of  all  men.  To-day 
he  returns.  Once  more  his  foot  is  on  his  native  soil,  in  sight  of  the 
majestic  mountains  he  loved  so  well,  not  far  from  the  river  on  whose 
banks  he  was  born.  Shouts  from  the  hillsides,  answering  shouts 
from  the  valleys,  welcome  his  return.  Sir,  I  cannot  think  him  dead. 
Not  in  the  flesh,  indeed,  does  he  stand  before  us.  No  longer  do 
those  dark  eyes  flash  upon  us  their  inward  light,  and  the  voice  which 
once  rang  like  a  trumpet  is  now  silent.  Yet,  in  a  sense  more  true 
than  his  own  pathetic  words,  he  still  lives.  To-day  we  have  erected 
a  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  —  of  Daniel  Webster  dead.  Webster 
dead  !  Who  closed  the  eyes  of  that  great  intelligence  ?  Who  saw 
the  train  go  forth  bearing  that  majestic  soul  to  the  tomb  ?  Who 
wrapped  in  cerements  and  closed  the  marble  doors  on  those  thoughts 
that  breathed  and  those  words  that  burned  ? 

Alas  !  in  the  blindness  of  our  grief  we  thought  that  it  was  so,  and 
spake  of  him  as  of  one  that  was  dead  ;  but  time  and  great  events,  and 
men's  second  thoughts  and  more  charitable  judgments,  and  loving 
hearts  that  quicken  at  the  sound  of  his  name,  —  all  proclaim  him 
living.  Yet  we  have  erected  a  statue  of  Daniel  Webster ;  and  it  is 
well ;  for  monuments  to  great  actions,  and  statues  of  men  truly 
great  are  not  dead  things,  nor  are  they  to  the  dead,  but  to  the  living. 
The  deeds  they  emblazon  are  immortal  deeds,  not  transitory ;  deeds 
which  light  the  centuries,  not  the  hours,  in  their  pathway  to  glorious 
actions.  They  illustrate  what  they  teach ;  they  are  Avhat  they  com- 
memorate. If  yonder  statue  is  not  Daniel  Webster  in  the  flesh,  it  is 
Daniel  Webster  transfigured  with  the  immortality  of  genius ;  with 
passionate  patriotism  which  never  grows  cold ;  with  love  of  home 
and  kindred  which  feels  no  touch  of  earthly  years ;  with 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    DARTMOUTH    ALUMNI.  73 

' '  truths  that  wake 
To  perish  never." 

And  through  the  years  that  are  to  come,  to  all  who  may  enter  yonder 
legislative  hall,  and  to  the  long  procession  of  men  who  shall  walk 
these  streets,  those  lips  will  still  have  language,  will  still  defend 
the  constitution,  will  still  inspire  sentiments  of  nationality.  Nor 
can  I  think  that  it  ever  will  be  otherwise  :  for  the  inspiration  of  great 
endeavor  is  its  immortality  ;  the  potency  of  great  achievement  is  its 
indestructibility.  The  past  assures  the  future.  The  discourses  at 
Plymouth  Rock  and  at  Bunker  Hill  were  not  for  an  hour ;  nor  was 
the  Great  Reply.  In  the  days  of  their  utterance  they  were  resplen- 
dent, unprecedented  eloquence  ;  but  they  spake  truest  when  they  be- 
came wisdom  to  Lincoln  and  valor  to  Grant ;  they  rang  loudest  when 
heard  along  the  front  of  battle,  and  inspired  deeds  of  immortal  hero- 
ism on  a  hundred  fields.  No :  the  statue  is  not  to  the  dead  orator 
but  to  the  living  who  speaks  to  us,  and  will  speak  to  those  who  come 
after  us,  as  he  spake  to  those,  his  associates,  the  venerable  men 
happily  with  us  to-day,  who 

"  followed  him,  honored  him, 
Lived  in  his  mild  and  magnificent  eye, 
Learned  his  great  language,  caught  his  clear  accents, 
Made  him  their  pattern  to  live  and  to  die." 

The  sentiments  were  as  follows  :  — 

Dartmouth  College : 

Cradled  by  the  river-side 
Where  the  Indian  schoolboy  played, 
In  New  Hampshire's  untrod  wilds, 
Far  from  busy  haunts  of  trade  ; 
Dowered  scant  with  worldly  goods, 
Reared  in  humble  penury, 
Struggling  thixmgh  long  years  of  toil, 
Rich  and  powerful  ne'er  to  be. 

But  to-day  still  toiling  on 
Rich  become,  though  not  in  pelf, 
Powerful,  too,  in  best  of  sense  — 
Rich  and  strong  in  sons  and  self ; 
Glorious  always  is  her  work, 


74  STATUE    OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Glorious  now  as  glorious  then, 
Product  of  her  fostering  care 
Strong  and  self-reliant  men. 

As  to-day  we  gather  here 
Webster's  statue  to  unveil, 
Not  alone  his  fame  we  crown, 
Hers,  as  well,  our  plaudits  hail. 
She  to  him  was  mother  true, 
He  to  her  was  more  than  son ; 
But  for  both  far  less  the  fame 
We  her  other  boys  had  won. 

If  her  monument  is  sought, 

Let  the  poet's  answer  be 

Given  the  seeker :  Search  no  more, 

It  is  here,  —  "  Circumspice.'1'1 

Responded  to  by  President  Bartlett. 

The  State  of  New  Hampshire :  Famous  for  her  scenery,  her  granite, 
and  her  men,  but  chiefly  known  as  being  the  seat  of  Dartmouth 
College. 

Response  by  Hon.  B.  F.  Prescott,  of  Epping. 
The  Press. 

~W.  E.  Barrett,  editor  of  the  Boston  Advertiser,  was 
called  on,  but  as  he  had  left  to  take  the  train,  E.  C.  Car- 
rigan  responded. 

Eloquence  as  described  by  him  who  spake  as  seldom  man  has  spoken  : 
"  The  high  purpose,  the  prime  resolve,  speaking  from  the  tongue, 
beaming  from  the  eye,  and  urging  the  whole  man  onward,  right 
onward  to  his  purpose,  —  this,  this  is  eloquence,  or  rather  it  is 
something  nobler  and  higher  than  all  eloquence,  it  is  action." 

Hon.  J.  W.  Patterson,  who  was  introduced  as  the  Peri- 
cles of  Dartmouth's  later  years,  responded. 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    DARTMOUTH    ALUMNI.  75 

RESPONSE   BY   HON.  J.  W.   PATTERSON. 

Brother  Alumni,  —  One  should  have  the  genius  and  felicity  of 
Pericles  to  respond  suitably  to  the  introduction  with  which  the  too 
partial  kindness  of  our  chairman  has  embarrassed  me,  but  now  such 
poor  gifts  as  I  have  are  paralyzed  by  the  force  and  cordiality  of  your 
fraternal  greeting.  This  magnificent  gathering  of  the  sons  of  Dart- 
mouth represents  the  learning,  experience,  and  wisdom  of  all  pro- 
fessions and  interests  of  the  republic,  and  not  to  be  profoundly 
moved  by  such  an  unstinted  and  spontaneous  expression  of  its  confi- 
dence and  regard,  one  must  be  something  more  or  less  than  human. 
Such  unsolicited  honors  are  the  compensations  of  life,  and  from  my 
heart,  gentlemen,  I  reciprocate  the  warmth  and  sincerity  of  your 
reception. 

Reverting  to  the  theme  to  which  you  called  me  up,  we  must  con- 
fess that  in  times  past  our  college  has  been  accused  of  sacrificing 
the  accessories  of  oratory  to  the  more  solid  and  disciplinary  studies 
of  a  collegiate  curriculum.  The  limited  resources  of  the  institution 
in  its  earlier  history  doubtless  restricted  somewhat  its  provisions  for 
special  and  ornamental  branches.  Chairs  devoted  exclusively  to 
studies  relating  immediately  to  the  art  of  public  speaking  could  not 
be  sustained  by  a  depleted  treasury  without  trenching  upon  the 
mathematics,  the  classics,  physics,  psychology,  and  other  masculine 
departments  in  which  Dartmouth  has  always  been  strong.  Fortu- 
nately the  necessity  for  such  limitations  has  passed  away,  and  to-day 
the  college  stands  equipped  for  all  the  modern  courses  of  study. 

But  has  the  cause  of  a  true  and  manly  eloquence  ever  really  suf- 
fered by  defects  in  the  work  of  our  Alma  Mater  ?  I  appeal  to  the 
record.  Inspect  the  roll  of  American  orators.  Are  the  names  of  her 
sons  less  conspicuous  or  relatively  less  numerous  than  those  of  other 
and  more  wealthy  institutions  ?  In  purity,  strength,  impressiveness, 
and  simple  grandeur,  the  eloquence  of  that  supreme  statesman  and 
lawyer  whose  statue  we  have  this  day  inaugurated  stands  unrivaled 
at  home  and  unsurpassed  in  the  forensic  or  patriotic  literature  of 
other  lands,  in  ancient  or  modern  times.  There,  too,  is  the  peerless 
Choate,  Webster's  Homer,  who  made  even  the  sulking  of  our  Achil- 
les a  personal  glory.  Where  in  court  or  senate  has  the  fullness  of 
his  learning,  the  splendor  of  his  diction,  or  the  quickness  and  subtlety 
of  his  perceptions  been  surpassed  since  the  days  of  Erskine  and 
Burke  ?  In  his  speeches,  thought,  like  waves  of  the  sea,  rolls  in 
upon  us  in  endless  succession,  bearing  an  oriental  wealth  of  illus- 
tration and  glowing  with  the  heat  of  an  intense  and  lofty  passion. 
Time  would  fail  us  to  recall  the  graduates  of  our  college  who  in  leg- 


76  STATUE    OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

islative  halls,  in  courts,  in  pulpits,  in  popular  assemblies,  and  in 
every  arena  of  public  service  have  influenced  society  with  the  power 
and  fascinations  of  impressive  speech. 

True  eloquence  is  infinitely  more  and  greater  than  felicity  of  style 
and  the  witchery  of  voice.  It  demands  that  strong  and  definite 
grasp  of  principles,  that  quickness  and  clearness  of  apprehension, 
that  strength  and  tenacity  of  conviction,  which  come  only  with  the 
discipline  of  thought,  and  this  is  the  fruitage  of  those  severer  studies 
which  from  the  first  have  characterized  the  work  of  our  college. 
We  weary  of  empty  declamation,  however  deftly  worded  or  artfully 
modulated,  and  turn  with  disgust  from  simulated  emotion. 

"  Life  is  real,  life  is  earnest," 

and  our  public  utterances,  if  they  would  secure  a  sympathetic  re- 
sponse from  the  popular  heart,  must  reach  the  vital  problems  of  the 
time,  must  deal  with  events  and  policies  that  affect  the  conditions 
and  the  welfare  of  society.  The  graces  of  rhetoric  add  to  the  effec- 
tiveness of  speech,  but  the  prime  essential  of  high  oratory  is  strong 
masculine  thought  that  solves  the  practical  questions  of  social  and 
public  life.  The  collegiate  training  that  imparts  mental  power  and 
discipline  does  most  for  the  eloquence  that  moves  the  masses  in  this 
utilitarian  age.  A  chastened  imagination  and  a  cultured  taste  will 
give  to  language  the  graces  and  beauties  of  high  scholarship,  and 
are  important  factors  in  the  art  of  oratory,  but  its  essential  element 
is  strong,  sensible,  and  sustained  thinking. 

Great  orators,  like  great  poets,  are  born,  not  made.  No  school  can 
claim  the  paternity  of  eloquence.  Like  the  radiance  of  the  diamond, 
it  springs  from  intrinsic  qualities  that  are  the  work  of  nature.  But 
the  school,  like  the  lapidary,  gives  an  added  beauty  and  effectiveness 
to  gifts  that  are  divine.  Special  endowments  of  intellect  and  tem- 
perament must  be  disciplined  and  habituated  to  the  concentration 
and  proper  blending  of  their  forces,  or  they  will  fail  of  their  highest 
possibilities  of  achievement.  The  supreme  masters  of  the  forensic 
art  are  often  dull  and  disappointing  in  formal  discourses  and  occa- 
sional addresses.  Thought  refuses  to  flow  and  the  sensibilities  to 
awaken  to  indifferent  themes.  The  mental  powers  expand  and  the 
passions  kindle  with  the  grandeur  of  the  issue.  When  liberty  is 
struck  down,  or  the  rights  of  states  are  in  peril,  when  nations  rock 
with  revolution,  or  popular  industries  perish,  when  the  social  organ- 
ism is  assailed  or  immortal  destinies  are  at  stake,  then  utterance 
becomes  historic  and  sublime.  The  soul  rises  to  the  magnitude 
•of  the  interests  involved,  and  thought,  learning,  passion,  all  come 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    DARTMOUTH    ALUMNI.  77 

to  the  aid  of  the  creative  faculty,  and  lift  into  the  literature  of  the 
world  forms  of  eloquence  that  can  never  die. 

Absolute  intellectual  and  moral  honesty  is  the  indispensable  in- 
spiration to  all  enduring  speech.  We  cannot  impart  to  trains  of 
thought  and  spoken  sentiment  not  grounded  in  personal  conviction 
that  strength  of  emotion  which  is  the  genius  of  true  eloquence.  We 
cannot  convince  others  of  the  truth  of  what  we  do  not  ourselves  be 
lieve.  Nature  rebels  against  an  untruth  and  reveals  the  affectation 
of  dishonest  declamation.  An  intuitive  apprehension  reads  the  lan- 
guage of  the  heart  and  discounts  the  words  of  him  who  plays  a  part. 
Expression,  if  possible,  should  be  original  and  accurate,  simple 
and  learned,  and  radiant  with  the  golden  light  of  a  chastened  fancy ; 
but  whatever  else  it  may  have,  if  it  is  not  honest,  sensible,  and  pro 
found,  it  will  be  ephemeral. 

Words  maybe  beautiful,  may  be  artistically  woven  into  language 
and  fall  like  nectar  from  the  lip,  but  if  not  embalmed  in  the  aspira- 
tions of  the  popular  heart,  if  not  expressive  of  ideas  and  principles 
that  take  hold  of  the  real,  permanent,  and  solemn  interests  of  man- 
kind, they  will  rarely  take  their  place  among  the  great  orations 
whose  eloquence  lives  in  various  tongues  and  thrills  through  the 
ages. 

We  do  not  claim  for  our  venerable  and  venerated  mother  extraor- 
dinary pre-eminence  to  other  institutions ;  but  in  this  family  re- 
union we  should  be  unjust  to  her  memory  if  we  did  not  assert  for 
her  sons  a  foremost  place  among  the  orators  of  the  republic  who 
have  won  for  themselves  an  undying  fame.  Wherever  the  rights  of 
men  were  to  be  asserted,  wherever  the  principles  of  government 
were  to  be  expounded  and  its  authority  maintained,  wherever  the 
majesty  of  law  was  to  be  exalted,  the  intellectual  and  social  interests 
of  society  advanced,  or  the  claims  of  revelation  pressed  upon  the 
conscience,  the  voices  of  our  brothers,  living  or  dead,  have  been 
heard  and  heeded  amid  the  strife.  No  logic  has  been  more  poten- 
tial, no  pathos  more  moving,  and  no  wisdom  more  heeded  than 
theirs  in  the  great  crises  of  our  national  and  social  life.  It  has 
been  my  good  fortune  to  listen  to  many  of  the  great  orators  of  this 
generation,  but  among  them  all  there  have  been  none  that  surpassed 
and  few  that  equaled  some  of  the  sons  of  "  Old  Dartmouth."  We 
have  a  right  to  be  proud  of  our  Alma  Mater  and  her  children. 
Nor  is  the  line  exhausted.  The  past  is  prophetic  of  the  future. 
The  bounty  of  Providence  has  not  exhausted  its  best  gifts.  In 
the  roll-call  of  our  second  centennial  there  will  be  names,  now 
unknown  to  fame,  as  honored  and  illustrious  as  any  that  the  past 
has  placed  among  the  immortals.  To-day  we  hail  our  orators  yet 


78  STATUE    OF    DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

to  be.  Listen  to  the  Macedonian  cry,  young  men,  and  press  to 
the  front.  There  is  a  great  work  and  a  splendid  future  before  you. 
Remember  it  is 

"  Better  to  stem  with  heart  and  hand 

The  roaring  tide  of  life,  than  lie 

Unmindful,  on  the  flowery  strand, 

Of  God's  occasions  drifting  by." 

Dartmouth  Lawyers:  Hooker  spoke  of  "Law,  whose  seat  is  the 
bosom  of  God,  whose  voice  is  the  harmony  of  the  world."  That 
is  the  kind  of  law  the  Dartmouth  graduates  practice. 

RESPONSE   BY  COL.    JOHN   H.    GEORGE. 

My  first  duty  is  to  welcome  to  New  Hampshire's  capital  these  sons 
of  New  Hampshire's  college,  and  this  I  do  most  cordially.  One  and 
all  I  bid  you  welcome  to  participation  in  the  most  appropriate  cere- 
monies in  honor  of  Dartmouth's  greatest  son.  As  I  listened  to  the 
admirable  address  of  my  friend  and  classmate,  Hon.  Mellen  Cham- 
berlain, on  this  occasion,  my  thoughts  were  carried  back  to  the  sum- 
mer of  1840,  when  he  and  I  had  just  finished  our  preparatory  studies 
at  the  old  academy  on  yonder  hill.  On  commencement  week  of  that 
year  we  journeyed,  with  my  father's  horse  and  wagon,  across  the 
country  to  visit  Hanover  for  the  first  time,  and  be  subjected  to  the 
examination  for  admission  to  the  college.  Professor  Sanborn,  — 
who  came  nearer  than  any  other  man  I  ever  knew  to  being  an  ency- 
clopedia of  general  knowledge,  —  I  remember,  examined  me  in 
Latin ;  Professor  Crosby,  whose  love  of  the  classics  surpassed  the 
"  love  of  woman,"  estimated  my  Greek ;  and  Professor  Young,  Sr., 
whose  death  left  a  marked  vacancy  in  the  ranks  of  scientific  men, 
subjected  me  to  some  investigation,  the  particulars  of  which  I  have 
now  forgotten.  I  remember  only  the  general  fact  that  we  were, 
without  conditions,  admitted  as  freshmen  to  the  college  which  had 
graduated  Webster  and  Choate,  and  that  we  were  several  sizes  larger 
when  we  returned  to  our  homes  at  the  end  of  the  week  than  we  were 
when  we  left  Concord  at  its  beginning.  Dr.  Lord,  who  to  an  unsur- 
passed degree  combined  the  full  courage  of  his  convictions  with 
vigor,  tact,  and  marvelous  ability,  and  whose  memory  is  specially 
dear  to  the  sons  of  Dartmouth,  was  the  college  president.  Profes- 
sors Haddock,  Sanborn,  Chase,  Brown,  Crosby,  Young,  with  tutors 
Joseph  Bartlett  and  Brown,  became  our  active  teachers.  All  are 
gone.  I  believe  no  one  then  connected  with  the  college  in  any  offi- 
cial capacity  now  remains  to  tell  the  tale  of  college  reminiscences. 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    DARTMOUTH    ALUMNI.  79 

But  changed  as  all  is  in  the  college  and  its  immediate  surround- 
ings, there  are  no  changes  more  marked  than  those  involved  in  the 
means  and  methods  of  reaching  Hanover  from  all  directions,  and 
especially  in  the  roadside  accommodations.  In  1840  the  stages 
usually  left  Concord  for  Hanover  at  four  o'clock  A.  M.,  but  at  the 
beginning  of  the  college  term,  when  crowded  with  students,  they 
started  as  early  as  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  With  the  highways 
double-rutted  by  the  heavily  loaded  eight  and  ten  horse  teams,  it 
took  full  twelve  hours  of  hard  driving,  "  a-straddle  the  ruts,"  and 
harder  riding,  to  make  the  journey  from  Concord  to  Dartmouth 
College.  This  tiresome  ride  was  relieved  every  few  miles  by  the 
stoppage  of  the  stage  at  a  country  tavern,  a  post-office,  or  a  hill  so 
steep  as  to  require  the  unloading  of  the  coach.  Few  of  the  Dart- 
mouth graduates,  before  the  construction  of  the  Northern  Railroad, 
can  fail  to  remember  the  old  Johnson  tavern  at  Fisherville ;  the 
West  and  Ambrose  inns  of  Boscawen  Plain  ;  Choate's  hill,  up  which 
the  horses  drew  with  difficulty  the  empty  coaches,  and  on  top  of 
which  stood  the  horse-shifting  station  ;  the  Smith  and  Webster  stands 
at  "  South  road"  and  "  Center  road"  in  the  town  of  Webster's  birth  ; 
the  more  dignified  "  hotels"  at  Mousam  and  West  Andover,  and  (he 
magician's  home  at  the  Potter  place ;  the  station  where  the  stage 
horses  were  changed  in  Wilmot ;  the  old  Stickney  tavern  in  Spring- 
field ;  the  pretentious  "  Willis  House"  at  Enfield  Center,  which  was 
subsequently  moved  to  White  River  Junction  when  the  railroad  was 
opened  there ;  the  Lafayette  Hotel  at  Lebanon ;  and  finally  the 
"  Lower  Tavern"  and  Dartmouth  Hotel  at  Hanover. 

A  year  ago  I  attended  commencement  with  my  friend,  the  gener- 
ous contributor  to  the  funds  of  the  college  as  well  as  the  liberal 
donor  of  the  statue  this  day  so  fitly  dedicated,  traveling  with  my 
carriage  over  the  old  stage  road  for  the  first  time  for  more  than 
forty  years.  I  found  the  broad,  double-rutted  turnpike  narrowed  in 
places  almost  to  a  bridle  path ;  and  of  the  old  hostelries,  but  two 
or  three  remained.  The  rest  have  either  disappeared  or  been  put 
to  other  uses ;  and  the  Dartmouth  boys  who  frequented  them  in 
their  frolics  or  their  journeys  to  and  from  college,  so  far  as  they 
survive,  have  grown  gray  in  the  activities  of  life. 

I  have  often  thought  that  these  rough  and  tough  old  highways 
and  tougher  taverns  had  much  to  do  with  strengthening  both  the 
physical  and  mental  powers  of  the  old-time  collegians.  Dartmouth 
lawyers  all  traveled  these  highways ;  they  all  ate  and  drank  and 
frolicked  at  these  country  inns. 

Show  me  any  institution  which  can  match  the  lawyer  list  of  Dart- 
mouth College  in  native  ability,  in  legal  acquirements,  in  keenness 


80  STATUE    OF   DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

of  perception,  in  energetic  action,  in  forensic  eloquence,  or  in  logical 
power.  At  home  or  abroad,  where  can  it  be  equaled?  Among  her 
dead  she  points  to  Daniel  Webster,  Ezekiel  Webster,  Rufus  Choate, 
Samuel  Sumner  Wilde,  Levi  Woodbury,  Ichabod  Bartlett,  Salmon 
Portland  Chase,  Richard  Fletcher,  Joseph  Bell,  Ether  Shepley,  Isaac 
Fletcher  Redfield,  Samuel  Bell,  Joel  Parker,  Harry  Hibbard,  George 
Foster  Shepley,  William  Henry  Bartlett,  and  Ira  Perley.  Among 
her  living  sons  are  Doe,  Field,  Brigham,  Ross,  and  their  associates 
upon  the  New  England  bench ;  Marston,  Ranney,  Minot,  Ayer, 
Bingham,  Parker,  Ladd,  Bruce,  Rollins,  and  a  multitude  of  others, 
who  adorn  the  bench  or  grace  the  bar  of  the  different  states.  It  can, 
without  exaggeration  and  with  good  reason,  I  think,  be  said,  that 
Dartmouth  graduates  have  had  their  full  share  of  success  in  all  the 
learned  professions,  but  in  no  calling  has  their  prominence  been 
more  marked  than  in  the  practice  of  the  law.  May  the  integrity, 
industry,  energy,  pluck,  and  learning  which  have  hitherto  charac- 
terized the  lawyers  of  Dartmouth,  continue  to  characterize  her 
graduates,  and  the  old  college  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  will 
continue  justly  proud  of  her  sons. 

The  following  Dartmouth  graduates  (with  dates  of  graduation) 
have  held  important  judicial  positions  :  — 

Sylvester  Gilbert,  1775,  justice  county  court,  Conn. 

John  Samuel  Sherburne,  1776,  justice  United  States  district  court, 

N.  H. 

Elijah  Brigham,  1778,  justice  court  common  pleas,  Mass. 
Jedediah  Parker  Buckingham,  1779,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 
Calvin  Goddard,  1786,  justice  supreme  court,  Conn. 
Ebenezer  Brown,  1787,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 
Samuel  Sumner  Wilde,  1789,  justice  supreme  court,  Mass. 
Martin  Chittenden,  1789,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 
Moulton  Morey,  1789,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 
Richard  Clair  Everett,  1790,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  N.  H. 
Asa  Lyon,  1790,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 
Samuel  Porter,  1790,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 
Dudley  Chase,  1791,  chief-justice  supreme  court,  Vt. 
William  H.  Woodward,  1792,  chief-justice  court  of  common  pleas, 

N.  H. 

Samuel  Bell,  1793,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 
Isaac  Hall  Tiffany,  1793,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  N.  Y. 
Joshua  Darling,  1794,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  N.  H. 
Daniel  Meserve  Durell,  1794,  chief-justice  court  of  common  pleas, 

N.  H. 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    DARTMOUTH    ALUMNI.  81 

William  Howe,  1794,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 

Thomas  Heald,  1794,  justice  supreme  court,  Ala. 

Nicholas  Baylies,  1794,  justice  supreme  court,  Vt. 

Judah  Dana,  1795,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Me. 

Heman  Allen,  1795,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 

Nicholas  Emery,  1795,  justice  supreme  court,  Me. 

William  Bradley,  1796,  justice  county  court,  N.  Y. 

Parker  Noyes,*  1796,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 

William  Wilson,  1797,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Ohio. 

Phineas  White,  1797,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 

Joseph  Locke,  1797,  chief  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Mass. 

John  Cox  Morris,  1798,  justice  county  court,  N.  Y. 

Samuel  Swift,  1798,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Vt. 

Elisha  Hotchkiss,  1801,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 

Aaron  Loveland,  1801,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 

Sanford  Kingsbury,  1801,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Me. 

Nathan  Weston,  1803,  chief-justice  supreme  court,  Me. 

Calvin  Selden,  1803,  justice  county  court,  Me. 

Israel  P.  Richardson,  1804,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 

Denison  Smith,  1805,  justice  county  court,  Vt. ;  state's  attorney. 

David  Cummins,  1806,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Mass. 

Matthew  Harvey,  1806,  justice  United  States  district  court,  N.  H, 

Richard  Fletcher,  1806,  justice  supreme  court,  Mass. 

Albion  Keith  Parris,  1806,  justice  supreme  court,  Me. 

Timothy  Farrar,  1807,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  N.  H. 

Levi  Woodbury,  1809,  justice  United  States  supreme  court. 

Daniel  Wells,  1810,  chief-justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Mass. 

Seth  Cogswell  Baldwin,  1810,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  N.  Y. 

Joel  Parker,  1811,  chief -justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 

Ether  Shepley,  1811,  chief-justice  supreme  court,  Me. 

David  Pierce,  1811,  justice  county  court,  Vt. 

Daniel  Breck,  1812,  justice  supreme  court,  Ky. 

Isaac  McConihe,  1812,  justice  county  court,  N.  Y. 

Jonathan  Kittredge,  1813,  chief-justice  court  of  common  pleas,  N.  H, 

David  Campbell  Smith,  1813,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Ohio. 

Daniel  M.  Christie,*  1815,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 

Charles  Frederick  Gove,  1817,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  N.  H. 

Leonard  Wilcox,  1817,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 

John  Dwight  Willard,  1819,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  N.  Y. 

George  Washington  Nesmith,  1820,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 

Nathaniel  Gookin  Upham,  1820,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 

*  Appointed,  but  did  not  accept. 


82  STATUE    OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Ira  Perley,  1822,  chief-justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 

John  Chamberlain,  1823,  justice  county  court,  111. 

Jonas  Cutting,  1823,  justice  supreme  court,  Me. 

Benjamin  West  Bonney,  1824,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  Y. 

Abel  Underwood,  1824,  justice  circuit  court,  Vt. 

Robert  Reed  Heath,  1825,  justice  supreme  couit,  N.  C. 

Isaac  Fletcher  Redfield,  1825,  chief-justice  supreme  court,  Vt. 

Andrew  Salter  Woods,  1825,  chief-justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 

Charles  Milton  Emerson,  1826,  justice  district  court,  La. 

Salmon  Portland  Chase,  1826,  chief-justice   supreme  court,  United 

States. 

William  Gustavus  Woodward,  1828,  justice  supreme  court,  Iowa. 
Ira  Allen  Eastman,  1829,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 
Charles  William  Woodman,  1829,  justice  court  of  common  pleas, 

N.  H. 

David  Aiken,  1830,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Mass. 
Gouvemeur  Morris,  1830,  justice  circuit  court,  Mich. 
Peabody  Atkinson  Morse,  1830,  justice  supreme  court,  Cal. 
John  Barren  Niles,  1830,  justice  circuit  court,  Ind. 
Asa  Fowler,  1833,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 
Samuel  Locke  Sawyer,  1833,  justice  circuit  court,  Mo. 
Jacob  Gale,  1833,  justice  circuit  court,  HI. 
Samuel  L.  Sawyer,  1833,  justice  circuit  court,  Mo. 
Daniel  Clark,  1834,  justice  United  States  district  court,  N.  H. 
Harry  Hibbard,*  1835,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 
Timothy  Parker  Redfield,  1836,  justice  supreme  court,  Vt. 
Josiah  Minot,  1837,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  N.  H. 
Horace  Mower,  1837,  justice  supreme  court,  Xew  Mexico. 
George  Foster  Shepley,  1837,  justice  first  circuit  court  United  States 

(Me.,  N.  H.,  Mass.,  and  R.  L). 

Frank  Emerson,  1838,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Ind. 
Charles  Augustus  Harper,  1838,  justice  supreme  court,  Ark. 
James  Barrett,  1838,  justice  supreme  court,  Vt. 
Jason  Downer,  1838,  justice  supreme  court,  Wis. 
Jonathan  Everett  Sargent,  1840,  chief-justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 
William  Ballard  Smith,  1840,  justice  circuit  court,  Ind. 
Lincoln  Flagg  Brigham,  1842,  chief-justice  superior  court,  Mass. 
Stephen  Gordon  Nash,  1842.  justice  superior  court,  Mass. 
John  Sewall  Sanborn,  1842,  justice  court  of  Queen's  Bench,  Canada. 
Milton  Wason,  1842,  justice  county  court,  Cal. 
Thomas  William  Freelon,  1843,  justice  superior  court,  Cal. 

*  Appointed,  but  did  not  accept. 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    DARTMOUTH    ALUMNI.  83 

Joshua  James  Guppey,  1843,  justice  county  court,  Wis. 

Levi  Benjamin  Taft,  1843,  justice  circuit  court,  Mich. 

Mellen  Chamberlain,   1844,  chief-justice   municipal  court,  Boston, 

Mass. 

John  Noble  Goodwin,  1844,  chief-justice  supreme  court,  Ar.  Ter. 
Harvey  Jewell,  1844,  justice  court  Alabama  claims,  United  States. 
Benjamin  Franklin    Dennison,    1845,  chief-justice   supreme  court, 

Wash.  Ter. 
Sylvanus  Converse  Huntington,  1845,  justice  court  of  common  pleas, 

N.  Y. 

Isaac  William  Smith,  1846,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 
Joseph  Mills  Cavis,  1846,  justice  district  court,  Cal. 
Edward  Jenner  Warren,  1846,  justice  circuit  court,  N.  C. 
William  Henry  Bartlett,  1847,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 
Alpha  Child  May,  1847,  justice  circuit  court,  Wis. 
Austin  Adams,  1848,  chief-justice  supreme  court,  Iowa. 
Oliver  Miller,  1848,  justice  court  of  appeals,  Md. 
Charles  Humphrey  Mooar,  1848,  justice  county  court,  Ky. 
Charles  Doe,  1849,  chief-justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 
Marquis  DeLafayette  Lane,  1849,  justice  superior  court,  Me. 
Clinton  Warrington  Stanley,  1849,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 
Lewis  Whitehouse  Clark,  1850,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 
Edward  Towle  Brooks,  1850,  justice  supreme  court,  Canada. 
Jonathan  Ross,  1851,  justice  supreme  court,  Vt. 
Edward  Jessup  Wood,  1853,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Ind. 
Henry  Wilder  Allen,  1854,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  N.  Y. 
William  Callahan  Robinson,  1854,  justice  supreme  court,  Conn. 
Henry  Wilder  Allen,  1854,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  Y. 
William  Henry  Harrison  Allen,  1855,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 
Walbridge  Abner  Field,  1855,  justice  supreme  court,  Mass. 
William  Spencer  Ladd,  1855,  justice  supreme  court,  N.  H. 
Henry  Whipple  Perkins,  1855,  justice  county  court,  Iowa. 
Oreenleaf  Clark,  1855,  justice  supreme  court,  Minn. 
Azro  Dyer,  1856,  justice  superior  court,  Ind. 
Caleb  Blodgett,  1856,  justice  superior  court,  Mass. 
Elijah  Francis  Dewing,  1856,  justice  district  court,  La. 
William  John  Galbraith,  1857,  justice  United  States  district  court, 

Mont.  Ter. 

Benjamin  Hinman  Steele,  1857,  justice  supreme  court,  Vt. 
John  Cushman  Hale,  1857,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Ohio. 
Wheelock  Graves  Veazey,  1859,  justice  supreme  court,  Vt. 
Roger  Sherman  Greene,  1859,  chief-justice   supreme  court,  Wash. 

Ter. 


84  STATUE    OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Daniel  Ashley  Dickinson,  1860,  justice  supreme  court,  Minn. 
Daniel  Gustavus  Rollins,  1860,  surrogate,  New  York  city. 
Nathaniel  Holmes  Clement,  1863,  justice  city  court,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
John  Sanborn  Connor,  1865,  justice  court  of  common  pleas,  Ohio. 
Horace  Russell,  1865,  justice  superior  court,  N.  Y. 

At  the  close  of  Col.  George's  response,  Judge  Cham- 
berlain arose  and  said  he  had  omitted  in  his  oration  an 
important  portion,  and  read  from  manuscript  as  follows : 

"The  gift  of  the  statue  is  to  the  state ;  and  while  it  is  neither  fit- 
ting nor  necessary  that  the  sons  of  Dartmouth  should  add  to  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  donor's  munificence  of  his  Excellency  the 
Governor,  we  cannot  forget  that  Benjamin  Pierce  Cheney  was  one  of 
the  largest  and  most  timely  benefactors  of  the  college.  And  may  I 
not  add  a  word  in  anticipation  of  more  formal  recognition  of  the 
fact,  that  the  idea  of  erecting  a  statue  of  Daniel  Webster  on  New 
Hampshire  soil  originated  with  the  eminent  citizen  identified  for  the 
past  thirty  years  with  the  political  history  of  the  state,  and  always 
a  true  friend  of  the  college,  whose  masterly  discourse  on  Daniel 
Webster  first  suggested,  and  whose  labors  have  efficiently  promoted, 
the  grateful  act  this  day  consummated.  I  hardly  need  say  that  I 
refer  to  Col.  John  H.  George.1' 

The  Dartmouth  Alumni :  Artemas  Ward's  military  company  was 
made  up  wholly  of  brigadier-generals.  In  like  manner  the 
alumni  of  Dartmouth  are  all  Fellows  —  Pro  auctoritate  mihi 
commissa,  "Hi  Juvenes"  sunt  good  fellows. 

Hon.  John  Wentworth  was  expected  to  respond,  but  as 
he  had  left  the  building  Hon.  David  Cross,  of  Manches- 
ter, responded. 

Dartmouth  and  Loyalty. 

Response  by  Capt.  Henry  B.  Atherton,  of  Nashua. 
The  Modern  Militia. 

Gen.  Philip  Carpenter,  of  New  York  city. 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    DARTMOUTH    ALUMNI.  85 

At  this  point  Judge  Field,  for  a  committee  of  the  Bos- 
ton Alumni  Association,  outlined  the  report  which  would 
be  made  to  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Alumni  Associa- 
tion at  Hanover  the  following  week.  It  contemplated 
the  election  of  an  advisory  board  of  fifteen  alumni  to  act 
with  the  trustees ;  the  secretary  and  treasurer  to  be  resi- 
dent in  Hanover  and  elected  annually.  The  duties  of  the 
board,  it  was  proposed,  should  be  to  attend  the  college 
examinations,  examine  the  financial  affairs  of  the  college, 
revise  the  courses  of  study,  etc.  Hon.  David  Cross  in 
his  response  said  the  plan  struck  him  favorably.  Capt. 
Atherton  alluded  to  the  brave  deeds  of  Dartmouth  men 
in  the  rebellion.  The  closing  toast  by  Gen.  Philip  Car- 
penter was  in  a  humorous  vein,  and  brought  to  an  end 
the  very  pleasant  exercises.  The  singing  by  the  Handel 
Society  of  Dartmouth  College  was  much  enjoyed,  and  the 
several  college  airs  were  liberally  applauded.  The  fol- 
lowing resolutions  were  offered  by  E.  C.  Carrigan,  and 
adopted  :  — 

Resolved,  That  this  association  approve  of  the  report  of  the  pro- 
gress of  the  general  committee  of  alumni  through  its  chairman, 
Judge  Field,  and  said  committee  be  respectfully  requested  to  report 
in  print  at  a  meeting  of  the  alumni  next  week. 

Resolved,  That  the  hearty  thanks  of  this  association  be  tendered 
the  executive  committee  of  Concord  alumni  for  their  invaluable  ser- 
vices to  old  Dartmouth  in  organizing  this  gathering  of  graduates 
and  classmates,  a  convention  historic  for  its  associations,  with  dedi- 
catory exercises  of  the  day,  and  the  greatest  in  the  history  of  the 
college. 


APPENDIX. 


LETTERS. 


WE  append  the  following  appreciative  letters,  from  the 
President  of  the  United  States  and  other  distinguished 
invited  guests,  in  reply  to  official  invitations :  — 

FROM  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION, 
WASHINGTON,  June  12,  1886. 

HON.  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire : 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  regret  that  pressing  official  duties  will  not  permit 
me  to  be  present  at  the  exercises  attending  the  unveiling  of  the 
statue  of  Daniel  Webster  at  Concord,  on  Thursday  next. 

Every  occasion  which  does  honor  to  this  illustrious  statesman  is  of 
extraordinary  interest  to  all  American  citizens,  since  our  pride  in 
his  career  and  achievements  is  not  in  the  least  limited  by  partisan 
influences  or  by  any  sentiment  less  than  national. 

It  would  be  well  if  in  the  capital  of  every  state  there  stood  a  statue 
such  as  Concord  boasts,  which  should  not  only  perpetuate  the  mem- 
ory of  a  man,  but  which  should  also  keep  alive  through  coming  gen- 
erations the  love  and  veneration  of  the  American  people  for  true 
American  greatness.  Yours  very  truly, 

GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

FROM  EX-PRESIDENT  RUTHERFORD   B.  HAYES. 

FREMONT,  O.,  May  15,  1886. 

HON.  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire, 

HON.  OILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee  : 
Gentlemen, — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your 


90  APPENDIX. 

valued  invitation  to  be  present  at   the  dedication  of  the  statue  of 
Daniel  Webster,  on  the  17th  of  next  month. 

New  Hampshire  is  to  be  congratulated  on  her  patriotic  purpose 
worthily  to  honor  the  memory  of  her  most  illustrious  son.  She  has 
many  titles  to  the  regard  of  her  sister  states,  none  better  than  the 
fact  that  she  gave  to  the  whole  country  Daniel  Webster. 

I  regret  that  my  engagements  do  not  permit  me  to  accept  your 
invitation.  Sincerely, 

R.  B.  HAYES. 

FROM   SAMUEL  J.  TILDEN. 

GREY  STONE,  YONKERS,  N.  Y., 

June  16,  1886. 

HON.  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire, 

HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee: 
Gentlemen,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  receive  your  invitation  to  partici- 
pate in  the  exercises  of  the  clay  as  the  guest  of  the  state  of  New 
Hampshire,  on  Thursday,  the  17th  of  June,  at  the  dedication  of  the 
statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  at  the  capital.  Cordially  agreeing  with 
the  people  of  New  Hampshire  in  their  admiration  of  the  illustrious 
orator  and  statesman  to  whose  memory  this  homage  is  to  be  ren- 
dered, and  several  of  whose  great  speeches  it  was  my  good  fortune 
to  hear,  I  regret  that  the  condition  of  my  health  will  not  allow  me 
to  be  present  on  so  interesting  an  occasion. 

S.  J.  TILDEN. 

FROM   ROBERT   C.  WINTHROP. 

BOSTON,  June  1,  1886. 

His  EXCELLENCY  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire, 
HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee: 
Gentlemen, — Absence  from  home  for  a  month  past  must  be  my 
apology  for  not  having  sooner  acknowledged  your  kind  and  compli- 
mentary invitation  of  May  11. 

It  would  afford  me  peculiar  pleasure  and  pride  to  be  present,  as  a 
guest  of  New  Hampshire,  at  the  reception  of  the  statue  of  Daniel 
Webster.  It  was  my  good  fortune  to  assist  at  the  unveiling  of  a 
similar  statue,  by  the  same  artist,  in  the  Central  Park  of  New  York, 
in  1876 ;  and  more  recently  I  have  united  with  the  Marshfield  Club 
in  celebrating  the  centennial  anniversary  of  Webster's  birthday.  I 
could  add  nothing  to  what  I  said  on  those  occasions,  and  should  be 


APPENDIX.  91 

in  danger  of  weakening  by  repetition  the  testimony  I  am  always  glad 
to  hear  to  the  surpassing  powers  of  one  with  whom  I  was  so  long 
associated ;  but  engagements,  from  which  I  cannot  escape,  unite 
with  the  infirmities  of  age  in  constraining  me  to  deny  myself  the 
privilege  of  being  at  Concord  on  the  17th  inst.,  and  I  can  only  offer 
you  my  best  thanks  for  your  obliging  invitation. 
Believe  me,  with  the  highest  respect, 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

ROBERT  C.  WINTHROP. 

FROM  BENJAMIN  F.  BUTLER. 

CONTINENTAL  HOTEL,  PHILADELPHIA, 

June  15,  1886. 
MAJOR-GENERAL  OILMAN  MARSTON: 

My  dear  Marston,  —  I  pray  you  grieve  with  me.  You,  I  know, 
will  fully  appreciate  how  I  am  distressed  when  I  write  you  I  can- 
not be  in  Concord  at  the  unveiling  of  the  statue  of  the  foremost 
lawyer  of  Massachusetts,  as  well  as  the  foremost  lawyer  of  the 
country.  My  age  enables  me  to  look  back  and  remember  that  long 
ago  I  was  with  Webster,  nay,  that  I  feebly  aided  in  a  cause  in  the 
trial  of  which  he  was  engaged,  and  in  that  cause  he  uttered  a  sen- 
tence which  was  an  aphorism  in  reply  to  his  opposing  counsel, 
Choate,  who  claimed  that  his  woman  client  had  only  been  engaged 
in  innocent  freedom.  "  Freedom,"  replied  Webster,  "  is  a  very  good 
political  but  a  very  bad  female  word."  This  trial  took  place  before 
the  Hon.  Richard  Fletcher,  associate  justice  of  the  supreme  court  of 
Massachusetts.  Judge  Fletcher  was  a  New  Hampshire  lawyer  of 
the  same  town  with  Webster ;  and  I  have  the  privilege  of  remem- 
bering another  Massachusetts  lawyer,  born  and  educated  in  New 
Hampshire,  Jeremiah  Mason,  whom  Mr.  Webster  believed  to  be 
the  best  lawyer  in  the  United  States,  for  it  is  said  he  answered  to  a 
friend  who  asked  him  who  was  the  best  of  the  Country":  "  Of  course  I 
should  say,"  said  Webster,  "  Chief- Justice  John  Marshall ;  but  if  you 
should  take  me  by  the  throat  and  back  me  up  into  the  corner,  and 
say,  '  Now,  Webster,  on  your  honor,  who  is  the  best  lawyer  in  the 
United  States?'  I  should  have  to  answer,  'Jeremiah  Mason.'" 

I  intended  at  the  dinner,  —  for  on  such  occasions  there  always  is  a 
dinner,  —  to  propose,  as  a  toast,  the  three  greatest  lawyers  of  Massa- 
chusetts,—Mason,  Webster,  and  Fletcher,  all  of  New  Hampshire ; 
and  my  toast  would  be  correct  in  any  event,  because  if  any  doubted 
concerning  any  one  of  them,  the  other  two  would  be  so  great  as  to 


92  APPENDIX. 

overshadow  any  other  three,  and  I  should  be  sustained  as  was  a 
bright  nephew  of  mine,  now  deceased,  who,  when  asked  who  were 
the  three  greatest  liars  in  the  United  States,  replied,"  Eli  Perkins 
is  one,"  and  gave  a  name,  which  I  shall  not,  as  the  other  two. 

My  dear  General,  with  such  an  appreciation  of  such  a  leader  at 
the  bar,  and  in  the  forum  of  the  United  States,  to  whose  name  and 
fame  New  Hampshire,  if  not  entitled  to  a  greater,  is  to  an  equal 
share  with  Massachusetts,  when  he  is  to  be  honored  by  his  native 
state,  and  I,  bom  in  the  same  stale,  because  of  that  distinction  have 
been  invited  by  its  authorities  to  be  present  at  what  may  not  be 
inappropriately  termed  the  solemn  festivities  of  dedicating  a  statue 
to  his  memory,  find  myself  unable  to  attend,  you  can  realize  my 
grief.  I  am  here  to  close  a  cause  in  argument  to  a  jury  to-morrow, 
to  whom  it  will  be  submitted  the  day  following.  The  case  has  been 
on  hearing  some  three  weeks,  and  you,  my  lawyer  soldier  friend, 
know  that  it  is  as  impossible  for  a  lawyer  to  desert  his  client's  case 
as  it  is  for  a  soldier  to  desert  his  post  in  the  hour  of  battle.  I  can 
express  my  sorrow  by  no  stronger  word  than,  I  cannot  come. 

I  am  very  truly  your  friend, 

BENJ.  F.  BUTLER. 

FROM  G.  R.  NUTTER. 

HARVARD  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE,  MASS., 

May  18,  1886. 
HON.  G.  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Committee  : 

Dear  Sir,  —  President  Eliot  regrets  that  his  engagements  will  not 
permit  him  to  accept  the  polite  invitation  to  attend  the  dedication  of 
the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

G.  R.  NUTTER, 

President's  Secretary. 

FROM   MARSHALL  P.  WILDER. 

DORCHESTER,  MASS.,  June  8,  1886. 

HON.  GEORGE  W.  NESMITH,  JOHN  M.  HILL,  JOHN  H.  GEORGE, 
Legislative  Committee: 

Gentlemen,  —  I  accept  with  pleasure  your  invitation  to  the  unveil- 
ing of  the  Webster  statue.  If  life  and  strength  hold  out,  I  shall  be 
present  to  participate  with  the  sons  of  New  Hampshire  in  the  cere- 


APPENDIX.  93 

monies  of  that  auspicious  occasion  ;  but  with  the  weight  of  fourscore 
and  eight  winters  on  my  head,  I  feel  I  am  a  minute  man,  and  liable 
to  be  summoned  over  to  the  better  land,  where  perhaps  I  may  meet 
again  him  whose  worth  and  greatness  will  be  remembered  not  only 
on  the  day  of  your  celebration  but  by  the  generations  that  are  to 
follow  us  through  coming  time.  But  should  life  or  health  fail  me 
ere  that  day  shall  arrive,  I  desire  here  to  record  that  it  was  my  priv- 
ilege to  be  well  acquainted  with  Mr.  Webster  for  a  long  course  of 
years.  I  knew  him  both  in  public  and  private  life,  from  the  day 
when  he  first  spoke  on  Bunker's  Heights  to  the  day  of  his  death. 
I  knew  him  at  the  capital  of  the  nation,  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and  in  other 
places  on  great  occasions.  I  knew  him  as  the  farmer  of  Marshfield, 
and  in  various  relations  of  life.  As  a  great  apostle  of  the  American 
Union,  the  expounder  and  defender  of  its  constitution,  Mr.  Webster 
stands  forth  as  the  foremost  figure  in  the  history  of  our  government, 
high  above  all  around  him.  To  him  we  are  more  indebted  than  to 
any  other  man  for  the  advocacy  of  those  great  principles  of  liberty 
and  union  which  nerved  the  arms  of  the  North  in  the  great  rebellion » 
and  gave  to  us  the  reunion  and  prosperity  which  our  nation  now 
enjoys.  New  England  has  had  no  such  other  son,  America  no  more 
illustrious  citizen. 

But  admired  and  almost  adored  as  Mr.  Webster  was,  no  man  was 
ever  more  misunderstood  and  misrepresented,  in  regard  to  his  7th 
of  March  speech  in  1850  ;  but  history  is  a  great  corrector  of  human 
affairs,  and  will  set  this  right  at  last ;  and  there  are  veiy  few  now 
living  who  do  not  see  in  that  memorable  document  the  same  un- 
swerving patriotism,  loyalty,  and  integrity  which  were  the  control- 
ling principles  of  his  life.  The  works  of  Mr.  Webster  are  among 
the  most  valuable  which  our  nation  has  produced.  "No  other  set 
of  volumes  contains  more  wisdom,  patriotism,  or  eloquence  ;  and  the 
more  we  read  them  the  more  will  they  be  admired.  The  light  of  his 
gigantic  intellect  was  not  like  the  blaze  of  the  meteor,  which  leaves 
darkness  more  intense,  but  like  the  glorious  sun,  shining  in  all  its 
effulgence  around  us,  and  lighting  up  the  way  to  honor,  glory, 
and  immortality."  These  are  the  words  that  I  uttered  on  a  former 
occasion,  and  were  they  my  last  I  could  find  no  better,  and  from 
which  I  have  nothing  to  take  back. 

As  ever,  yours, 

MARSHALL  P.  WILDER. 
1798-1886. 


94  APPENDIX. 


FROM  JAMES  W.  BRADBURY. 

AUGUSTA,  ME.,  June  9,  1886. 

YOUR  EXCELLENCY  GOVERNOR  CURRIER, 
HON.  OILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee : 

Gentlemen,  —  I  have  had  the  honor  to  receive  your  kind  invitation 
to  be  present  at  Concord,  on  the  17th  of  June,  at  the  dedication  of 
the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  presented  by  Mr.  Cheney  to  the  state 
of  New  Hampshire,  and  to  participate  in  the  exercises  as  guest  of 
the  state.  I  appreciate  and  thank  you  for  the  honor. 

While  I  regret  my  inability  to  be  present,  1  cannot  permit  the 
occasion  to  pass  without  expressing  my  pleasure  to  know  that  such 
a  testimonial  of  appreciation  of  the  great  orator  of  the  age  is  to  find 
visible  expression  in  his  native  state.  It  is  a  signal  honor  to  New 
Hampshire  to  have  been  the  birthplace  of  the  man  who  for  intel- 
lectual power  and  commanding  eloquence  stands  foremost  amongst 
the  illustrious  public  men  our  country  has  produced. 

When  at  Washington  a  few  years  ago  I  visited  the  capital  to  look 
upon  the  statues  of  the  distinguished  men  that  adorn  the  old  repre- 
sentatives1 hall  of  that  building,  but  I  found  none  of  Webster.  No 
statue  of  the  great  "  defender  of  the  constitution"  in  the  capitol  of  the 
Union,  the  theater  of  his  grandest  efforts !  As  Massachusetts,  the 
home  of  most  of  his  active  life  and  honored  by  his  services,  has  hith- 
erto waived  the  privilege  of  placing  his  statue  there,  will  not  his 
native  state  seize  the  opportunity  of  securing  such  distinction  for 
herself  ? 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  be  associated  with  Mr.  Webster  during 
the  trying  crisis  through  which  our  country  passed  in  1850.  While 
my  political  affiliations  have  never  been  with  him,  I  take  pleasure 
in  bearing  testimony  to  his  unselfish  patriotism  and  ardent  devotion 
to  the  Union.  It  was  no  unworthy  motive,  no  selfish  ambition,  that 
led  him  to  brave  the  censure  of  friends  he  esteemed  when  he  made 
his  celebrated  7th  of  March  speech  in  the  senate,  and  gave  his  hearty 
support  to  the  compromise  measures  for  the  settlement  of  the  ques- 
tions that  were  agitating  the  country.  His  course  was  dictated  by 
patriotism.  He  believed  there  was  danger  to  the  Union,  and  that 
the  compromise  provided  a  way  of  adjustment  compatible  with  the 
honor  of  both  sections  of  the  country.  He  saw  that  the  excitement 
was  intense  throughout  the  South.  They  claimed  that  the  Wilmot 
Proviso  in  the  pending  bills  for  the  organization  of  the  territories 
wronged  them  out  of  their  equal  interest  in  the  common  property  of 


APPENDIX.  95 

all  the  states  by  excluding  them  from  moving  there  with  their  house- 
hold as  constituted.  This  mode  of  reasoning,  however  specious, 
took  hold  of  the  southern  mind,  already  deeply  excited  by  the  de- 
nunciations to  which  they  had  been  exposed  on  the  subject  of  slav- 
ery. They  declared  they  would  not  submit  to  inequality,  and  avowed 
their  determination  to  withdraw  from  the  Union  if  the  proviso  should 
be  forced  upon  them.  It  was  obvious  that  the  time  was  more  favor- 
able for  success  in  the  attempt  than  could  ever  occur  again.  The 
North  was  increasing  more  rapidly  than  the  South,  and  the  inequality 
was  augmented  every  year.  The  noithwestern  states  were  linked 
to  the  South  by  commercial  interests  by  the  Mississippi  River  as  the 
great  channel  of  commerce.  The  great  West  was  not  then  united 
with  the  East  by  the  railroad  system  that  now  makes  their  business 
connection.  The  South  could  never  again  find  so  plausible  a  pre- 
text for  alleged  wrongs.  They  might  never  again  be  united,  and  a 
settlement  might  avert  a  war  or  end  all  future  attempts. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  Mr.  Webster  united  with  the 
conservatives  in  the  support  of  the  compromise.  This  and  all  meas- 
ures of  compromise  were  opposed  by  members  who  occupied  extreme 
positions  from  the  North  and  the  South.  The  idea  of  danger  was 
utterly  disbelieved  by  a  large  body  of  Mr.  Webster's  friends  in  the 
North.  They  deemed  the  thought  of  any  attempt  of  secession  pre- 
posterous, and  scouted  the  threat  of  it  as  mere  gasconade. 

Subsequent  events  have  thrown  such  light  upon  the  subject  as  will 
enable  us  to  determine  whether  Mr.  Webster,  or  the  friends  that 
supposed  he  was  influenced  by  groundless  fears,  were  right  in  the 
estimate  of  danger. 

Ten  years  afterwards,  when  the  relative  strength  of  the  North 
was  much  greater,  —  when  the  South  was  divided,  and  four  of  their 
states  took  sides  with  the  North,  —  when  the  Northwest  had  become 
connected  by  railroads  with  the  Atlantic,  and  no  longer  depended  on 
the  Mississippi  as  her  sole  channel  of  commerce,  and  when  the 
South  could  only  allege  against  the  government  as  a  pretext  for 
grievances  the  fact  that  the  president  and  vice-president  (whom  they 
by  their  action  had  contributed  to  elect)  were  both  citizens  of  north- 
ern states,  they  made  the  attempt  to  withdraw  from  the  Union  ;  and 
they  were  so  thoroughly  in  the  belief  of  their  right  under  the  con- 
stitution to  do  so,  and  in  their  determination  to  succeed,  that  it  took 
the  united  strength  of  the  North  with  their  Southern  allies,  and  years 
of  war  such  as  the  world  has  seldom  if  ever  seen,  whether  we  regard 
the  number  of  men  engaged  or  the  valor  with  which  they  fought,  to 
preserve  our  glorious  Union  entire. 

•Esto  perpetua.     How  fortunate  for  the  North,' and  the  South  also, 


96  APPENDIX. 

and  for  the  hope  of  republican  institutions  throughout  the  world, 
that  the  struggle  was  not  precipitated  in  1850. 

Thus  it  is  that  the  statesmanship  and  patriotism  of  Webster  are 
vindicated  by  subsequent  events. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  most  respectfully, 
Yours,  etc., 

JAMES  W.  BRADBURY. 

FROM   LEON   ABBETT. 

TRENTON,  N.  J.,  May  18,  1886. 
HON.  OILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  : 

Dear  Sir,  —  Your  kind  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  New  Hamp- 
shire state  capital  on  June  17  next,  to  attend  the  dedication  of  the 
statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  is  at  hand. 

I  should  be  pleased  to  attend,  but  state  engagements  will  prevent. 

Yours  respectfully, 

LEON  ABBETT. 

FROM   ROBERT   C.  SCHENCK. 

WASHINGTON,  June  12,  1886. 

His  EXCELLENCY  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire, 
HON.  OILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee: 
Gentlemen,  —  I  must  beg  you  to  pardon  me  for  not  making  earlier 
answer  to  your  letter  asking  me  to  participate,  as  a  guest  of  your 
state,  in  the  exercises  of  the  day  on  the  occasion  of  the  dedication  of 
the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  at  Concord,  on  the  17th  of  this 
month.  The  invitation  is  one  which,  on  every  account,  I  regard  as  a 
great  and  special  honor,  and  if  it  were  possible  I  should  take  great 
pleasure,  I  assure  you,  in  availing  myself  of  the  opportunity  to  be 
present  and  take  part  in  so  interesting  a  ceremony ;  but  I  am  com- 
pelled, reluctantly  and  regretfully,  to  decline.  I  have  been  hoping 
that  it  might  be  convenient  for  me  to  so  anticipate  and  arrange  a 
summer  visit  I  am  intending  to  make  this  season  to  the  coast  of 
Maine,  as  to  allow  of  my  being  at  Concord  at  the  date  indicated,  but 
my  engagements  here  will  not  permit  me  to  get  away  soon  enough 
for  that,  and  my  age  and  the  condition  of  my  health  will  hardly  ad- 
mit of  my  making  two  such  journeys. 

Excuse  me  for  these  personal  explanations.     I  give  them  only  be 
cause  I  would  not  be  thought  to  miss,  willingly  or  lightly,  a  chance 


APPENDIX.  97 

to  show  my  veneration  of  the  memory  of  Webster,  and  my  cherished 
appreciation  of  his  greatness.  New  Hampshire  may  well  be  proud 
of  the  distinction  of  having  given  birth  to  such  a  man ! 

In  one  period  of  my  public  service  —  from  1843  to  1851  —  it  was 
my  good  fortune  to  see  much  of  Mr.  Webster.  There  were  circum- 
stances which  brought  me,  during  a  portion  of  that  time,  into  as  close 
association  and  intimacy  with  him  as,  perhaps,  was  compatible  with 
our  difference  of  age  and  position.  As  a  statesman,  a  senator,  a 
great  constitutional  lawyer,  to  be  admired  and  revered,  towering 
among  his  compeers,  he  certainly  lost  by  nearness  of  view  nothing 
of  his  majestic  stature. 

Thanking  you  again,  gentlemen,  for  the  honor  of  your  invitation 
and  the  proffer  of  New  Hampshire  hospitality,  I  am, 
Very  respectfully  and  sincerely, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

ROBERT  C.  SCHENCK. 


FROM   E.  M.  STEARNS. 

BOSTON,  June  2,  1886. 
HON.  G.  MARSTON,  Concord,  N.  H. : 

I  thank  you  for  your  kind  invitation  to  participate  in  the  dedication 
of  the  statue  of  Mr.  Webster.  It  would  afford  me  the  greatest 
pleasure  to  be  present,  especially  under  the  hospitable  terms  of  your 
letter.  I  should  deem  it  a  great  honor  to  be  the  guest  of  the  state 
which  Mr.  Webster  loved  so  much,  and  which  was  so  proud  of  him. 
My  earliest  political  fealty  and  devotion  was  given  to  Mr.  Webster, 
and  although  a  babe  in  all  political  lore  and  experiences,  I  was  en- 
rolled among  the  "  Silver  Grey  Whigs"  and  followed  his  fortunes 
while  he  lived ;  and  upon  his  death,  it  seemed  to  me  that  the  country 
was  left  without  guide  and  support,  and  must  stagger  as  best  it  could 
with  its  head  buried  and  gone. 

I  fear  it  will  be  impossible  for  me  to  be  present,  as  professional 
engagements  here  and  at  my  home  so  crowd  upon  me  in  the  busy 
month  of  June  that  escape  seems  out  of  the  question. 

Accept  my  thanks  for  your  remembrance  of  me  upon  this  interest- 
ing occasion,  and  my  regrets  that  I  cannot  avail  myself  of  your 
kindness. 

Yours  very  truly, 

E.  M.  STEARNS. 

7 


98  APPENDIX. 

FROM   WILLIAM  PATERSON. 

PERTH  AMBOY,  N.  J.,  June  9,  1886. 

GEORGE  W.  NESMITH,  JOHN  M.  HILL,  JOHN  H.  GEORGE,  Trustees 

Webster  Statue,  Concord,  N.  H. : 

Gentlemen,  —  Judicial  engagements  will  prevent  my  acceptance 
of  the  invitation  with  which  I  am  honored  by  you,  to  attend  the  dedi- 
cation of  a  bronze  statue  of  Daniel  Webster  at  the  state  capital  of 
New  Hampshire,  on  Thursday  of  next  week.  I  regret  my  inability 
to  participate  in  the  exercises  of  the  occasion  and  assist  in  paying 
ti'ibute  to  the  memory  of  that  illustrious  citizen  of  your  little  com- 
monwealth, whose  fame  as  a  statesman  will  be  written  forever  on 
the  page  of  American  history. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  dwell  upon  the  life  and  character,  the  ser- 
vices and  the  worth  of  one  so  exalted  in  reputation  and  distinguished 
among  men.  Those  superior  and  commanding  qualities  by  which  a 
long  public  career  was  illustrated  and  finished  in  immortal  glory 
will  be  portrayed  most  fitly  by  the  president  of  the  academical  insti- 
tution so  highly  honored  by  his  enrollment  among  the  number  of  her 
sons.  As  an  alumnus  of  a  sister  college,  the  walls  of  which  bear 
marks  of  the  struggle  that  gave  a  continent  to  freedom,  and  but  few, 
if  any,  of  whose  young  tribes  were  faithless  in  the  patriotic  cause, 
I  should  esteem  it  a  rare  privilege  to  unite  with  the  alumni  of  Dart- 
mouth in  honoring  him  who  always  stood  in  civic  strife  a  foremost 
champion  of  the  rights  of  all  the  states  and  all  their  people.  But 
few  are  living  who  can  recollect  with  me  the  crown  of  glory  laid 
upon  his  head,  when  more  than  half  a  century  ago  he  stood  forth, 
peerless  of  all  his  peers,  as  the  grand  defender  of  constitutional 
liberty  and  union ;  and  keeping  steadily  in  view  the  price  at  which 
that  liberty  was  bought,  and  the  perpetuity  of  the  Federal  Union, 
which  he  professed  as  his  great  aim,  it  was  most  meet  that  the  clos- 
ing effort  of  his  life  was  to  maintain  inviolate  the  sacred  compact 
which  he  ever  kept  and  ever  strove  to  make  secure  and  safe. 
Very  respectfully  yours, 

WILLIAM  PATERSON. 


APPENDIX.  99 

FROM   CHARLES   F.  ADAMS,  JR. 

BOSTON,  May  28,  1886. 
HON.  OILMAN  MARSTON  : 

My  Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  to  thank  you  for  the  invitation  sent  me 
some  days  since  to  attend  the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel 
Webster,  presented  to  the  state  of  New  Hampshire  by  Mr.  Cheney, 
upon  the  17th  of  June.  While  it  would  afford  me  the  greatest 
possible  pleasure  to  participate  in  this  occasion,  my  engagements 
are  such  as  will  preclude  my  so  doing. 
Regretting  extremely  that  this  should  be  the  case, 

I  remain,  etc., 

CHARLES  F.  ADAMS,  JR. 

FROM    RKBECCA   MILLER. 

TEMPLE,  June  11,  1886. 
To  GOVERNOR  MOODY  CURRIER  AND  GENERAL  G.  MARSTON  : 

Dear  Sirs,  —  I  cannot  imagine  any  thing  which  would  give  me 
more  pleasure  than  to  avail  myself  of  the  honor  of  your  invitation  to 
be  present  at  the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  so 
generously  presented  to  the  state  by  Mr.  Cheney,  but  the  present 
infirm  state  of  my  health  forbids  my  going. 

Mr.  Webster  had  no  more  sincere  admirer  than  his  contemporary 
and  friend,  General  Miller,  or  grandson  of  whom  Col.  E.  H.  Ropes, 
of  New  Jersey,  will  be  in  Concord  on  the  17th. 

Very  respectfully, 

REBECCA  MILLER. 

FROM   HORACE   FAIRBANKS. 

ST.  JOHNSBURY,  VT.,  June  14,  1886. 
HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee : 

My  dear  Sir, — In  reply  to  your  kind  invitation  to  be  present  at 
the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  on  the  17th  instant, 
would  say  that  till  now  I  had  expected  to  have  that  pleasure,  but 
regret  to  say  that  I  shall  be  unavoidably  prevented  from  being 
present. 

Thanking  you  for  your  courtesy,  I  am 

Yours  very  truly, 

HORACE  FAIRBANKS. 


100  APPENDIX. 

FROM  SAMUEL  J.  RANDALL. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  31,  1886. 

MESSRS.  'GEORGE  W.  NESMITH,  JOHN  M.  HILL,  AND  JOHN  H. 

GEORGE,  Committee  of  Invitation : 

Dear  Sirs,  —  I  acknowledge  your  kind  invitation  for  the  17th  prox- 
imo. It  would  afford  me  real  gratification  to  witness  the  ceremonies 
of  unveiling  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster  at  your  state  capital,  but 
I  fear  my  public  duties  will  not  allow  me  to  absent  myself  from  this 
city  at  that  time. 

Daniel  Webster  was  a  great  man,  and  the  memory  of  his  splendid 
career  is  enough  to  enrich  not  only  one  state  but  the  whole  Union, 
whose  noblest  advocate  he  was.  He  was  essentially  a  teacher,  and 
his  works  are  full  of  lessons  of  wisdom,  which  those  who  would  pre- 
serve our  free  government  will  do  well  to  cherish.  And  one  of  the 
ways  of  doing  so  is  to  keep  his  memory  green  in  the  land  he  loved 
and  honored.  I  shall  join  heartily  with  you  in  the  spirit  of  the 
occasion. 

Thanking  you  for  your  courtesy,  I  am 

Very  truly  yours, 

SAMUEL  J.  RANDALL. 

FBOM  JOHN  LOWELL. 

3  PEMBERTON  SQUARE, 

BOSTON,  June  10,  1886. 
HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON: 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  was  much  gratified  to  receive,  through  your 
hands,  the  invitation  of  the  state  to  attend  the  exercises  at  Concord, 
on  the  17th.  I  should  be  much  pleased  to  testify,  by  my  presence, 
an  appreciation  of  Mr.  Cheney's  munificent  gift,  as  well  as  the  ad- 
miration and  respect  that  we  all  feel,  and  which  our  posterity  will 
feel,  for  the  great  defender  of  the  Union,  whose  words  did  more  than 
any  other  influence  to  consolidate  the  opinion  of  the  North,  and  to 
render  the  victory  of  union  over  secession  possible.  It  unfortunately 
happens  that  an  engagement  of  long  standing  which  calls  me  away 
will  prevent  my  joining  with  you  on  that  day. 

Yours  very  truly, 

JOHN  LOWELL. 


APPENDIX.  101 

FROM  HENRY  B.  HARRISON. 

EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT, 
HARTFORD,  CONN.,  June  10,  1886. 

To  His  EXCELLENCY,  the  Governor  of  New  Hampshire : 

Sir,  — I  beg  you  to  accept  my  apology  for  having  failed  to  answer 
hitherto  your  communication  inviting  me  to  be  present  at  the  dedi- 
cation of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  in  Concord,  on  the  17th  of 
this  month.  I  have  waited  in  the  hope  that  I  might  be  able  to  accept 
your  courteous  invitation,  which  I  find  now  that  I  must,  with  great 
regret,  ask  leave  to  decline. 

Very  respectfully, 

HENRY  B.  HARRISON. 

FROM   WILLIAM   CLAFLIN. 

BOSTON,  June  14, 1886. 
HON.  JOHN  H.  GEORGE  : 

My  dear  Sir,  —  It  is  with  sincere  regret  that  I  am  obliged,  on  ac- 
count of  the  state  of  my  health,  to  decline  the  invitation  of  your 
committee  to  be  present  at  the  unveiling  of  the  statue  of  Daniel 
Webster. 

Please  accept  my  thanks  for  your  kind  remembrance. 
With  great  respect,  I  am 

Yours  truly, 

WILLIAM  CLAFLIN. 

FROM  ST.  JULIAN  FILLETTE. 

UNITED  STATES  SENATE, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  June  10,  1886. 

GEORGE  W.  NESMITH,  ESQ.,  JOHNM.  HILL,  ESQ.,  JOHN  H.  GEORGE, 

ESQ.,  Committee  : 

Gentlemen,  —  Senator  Hampton  has  been  called  to  South  Carolina 
by  illness  in  his  family,  but  before  leaving  he  requested  me  to  say  to 
you  that  it  would  give  him  great  pleasure  to  be  present  at  the  unveil- 
ing of  the  Webster  statue  if  his  public  duties  would  permit.  This, 
he  is  sorry  to  say,  is  not  the  case,  therefore  he  must  decline  your 
polite  invitation.  I  am 

Very  truly  yours, 

ST.  JULIAN  FILLETTE. 


102  APPENDIX. 

FROM   CORTLANDT  PARKER. 

NEWARK,  N.  J.,  June  4,  1886. 

GEORGE  W.  NESMITH,  ESQ.,  JOHN  M.  HILL,  ESQ.,  AND  JOHN  H. 

GEORGE,  ESQ.,  Trustees,  etc. : 

Gentlemen,  —  I  acknowledge  with  thanks  the  compliment  of  your 
request  that  I  should  be  present  at  the  unveiling  and  dedication  of 
the  bronze  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  at  Concord,  on  the  17th  of 
June  instant.  It  would  give  me  great  satisfaction  to  be  able  to 
accept  this  invitation. 

New  Hampshire  is  right  in  doing  honor  to  the  memory  of  this  great 
man,  intellectually  not  surpassed,  if  equaled,  by  any  other  of  the 
great  men  of  our  republic.  Nor,  especially  as  his  exposition  of  the 
constitution  has  been  settled  by  arbitrament  of  arms,  as  well  as  by 
legal  adjudication,  has  the  time  yet  arrived  when  it  has  ceased  to  be 
necessary  to  remember  his  views,  and  to  seek  to  impress  them  upon 
succeeding  generations. 

Monuments  preach,  and  the  monument  of  Webster  preaches  not 
only  nationality,  but  also  those  time  views  of  state  rights  —  only 
second  to  nationality  —  and  through  the  maintenance  of  which  alone 
will  our  peculiar  nationality  be  enabled  securely  to  spread  and 
flourish. 

New  Hampshire  and  Dartmouth  gave  much  to  the  world  when  they 
ushered  forth  Daniel  Webster,  and  the  gratitude  of  the  whole  coun- 
try is  due  to  them  for  the  deed. 

Regretting  my  inability  to  join  with  the  distinguished  men  who 
will  be  present  on  this  interesting  occasion,  I  remain 
Yours  very  respectfully, 

CORTLANDT  PARKER. 

FROM   CHARLES   DEVENS.  * 

BOSTON,  May  6,  1886. 
G.  W.  NESMITH,  ESQ.,  AND  OTHERS,  Committee: 

Gentlemen,  —  I  am  very  much  honored  by  an  invitation  to  attend 
the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Mr.  Webster,  and  regret  that  the  day 
assigned  compels  me  to  decline  it.  As  president  of  the  Bunker  Hill 
Monument  Association  I  am  necessarily  obliged  to  attend  its  meeting 
on  that  day. 
With  thanks  for  your  kindness,  I  am 

Your  obedient  servant, 

CHARLES  DEVENS. 


APPENDIX.  103 

FROM  E.  F.  STONE. 

WASHINGTON,  May  17,  1886. 
HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON  : 

Dear  General,  —  I  have  the  honor  of  acknowledging  the  receipt  of 
an  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  services  of  the  17th  of  June  next, 
in  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  the  illustrious  son  of 
New  Hampshire,  and  sincerely  regret  that  my  duties  here  will  make 
it  impossible  for  me  to  attend. 

Yours  truly, 

E.  F.  STONE. 

FROM   LEOPOLD   MORSE. 

BOSTON,  May  29,  1886. 
MR.  G.  MARSTON,  Chairman,  Concord,  N.  H. : 

Mr.  Leopold  Morse  returns  thanks  for  the  honor  conferred  by  your 
kind  invitation  of  llth  instant,  to  attend  the  dedication  of  the  statue 
of  the  immortal  Webster,  and  regrets  exceedingly  that  absence  in 
Europe  will  prevent  his  acceptance. 

FROM  ANDREW   H.  YOUNG. 

COLUMBUS  BARRACKS,  OHIO,  June  14,  1886. 

HON.  GEORGE  W.  NESMITH,  HON.  JOHN  M.  HILL,  AND  JOHN  H. 

GEORGE,  ESQ.  : 

Gentlemen,  —  Your  favor  of  May  1  inviting  me  to  attend  at  the 
unveiling  and  dedication  of  a  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  at  Concord, 
on  the  17th  instant,  was  duly  received.  I  have  delayed  answering  it 
until  to-day,  hoping  and  expecting  that  I  should  be  able  to  be 
present  and  participate  in  the  ceremonies,  but  I  regret  to  find  that 
my  public  duties  will  prevent. 

In  common  with  all  New  Hampshire  men,  I  regard  Webster  as  the 
greatest  American,  and  his  memory  deserving  of  all  homage  from 
his  native  state. 

Thanking  you  for  the  invitation,  I  am,  gentlemen, 

Very  respectfully, 

ANDREW  H.  YOUNG. 


104  APPENDIX. 

FKOM  S.  W.  MARSTON. 

BOSTON,  June  12,  1886. 
HON.  OILMAN  MARSTON: 

My  dear  Oilman,  —  Thanks  for  your  invitation  for  the  17th  in- 
stant. I  think  no  one  has  lived  in  ray  day  for  whom  I  had  a  greater 
veneration  than  for  Mr.  Webster,  and  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
him  a  good  deal  during  the  many  years  of  my  residence  at  the  Re- 
vere House ;  and  Mr.  Cheney,  the  donor  of  the  statue,  is  also  an  old 
friend.  But  a  prior  engagement  to  attend  the  marriage  of  a  daugh- 
ter of  a  dear  friend  at  Pittsfield,  on  that  day,  will  prevent  my 

acceptance. 

With  sincere  regrets, 

Affectionately  yours, 

S.  W.  MARSTON. 

FROM  WILLIAM   S.  GARDNER. 

NEWTON,  MASS.,  June  11,  1886. 

To  His  EXCELLENCY  MOODY  CURKIER,    Governor  of  New  Hamp- 
shire : 

Sir, — Your  favor  inviting  me  to  be  present  at  Concord  on  Thurs- 
day next,  as  a  guest  of  the  state,  to  participate  in  the  ceremonies 
attending  the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  has  been 
gratefully  received.  I  regret  that  I  cannot  attend  and  enjoy  the 
pleasure  of  joining  in  the  exercises  of  the  day.  You  will  please 
to  accept  my  thanks  for  the  honor  of  your  kind  invitation. 
Your  very  obedient  servant, 

WILLIAM  S.  GARDNER. 

FROM   T.  W.  BONAPARTE. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  June  13,  1886. 
G.  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee  : 

Sir, — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  invita- 
tion to  assist  at  the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  on 
Thursday,  June  17.  I  regret  exceedingly  that  previous  engage- 
ments will  prevent  William  Bonaparte  and  me  from  being  present 
on  that  occasion. 

With  many  thanks  for  having  thought  of  us,  I  remain 

Respectfully  yours, 

T.  W.  BONAPARTE. 


APPENDIX.  105 

FROM  EDWARD  MC  PHERSON. 

1701  MASSACHUSETTS  AVE., 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  June  3,  1886. 
GEN.  OILMAN  MARSTON: 

My  dear  Marston,  —  I  have  your  kind  invitation  for  the  17th  in- 
stant, and  would  gladly  accept  if  I  could  be  absent.     That  is  out  of 
the  question,  and  I  can  only  thank  you  for  thinking  of  me. 
With  high  regard, 

Very  truly  yours, 

EDWARD  McPHERSON. 

FROM   FREDERICK  A.  JOHNSON. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  U.  S., 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  26,  1886. 

HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman: 

Dear  Sir,  —  Please  accept  my  thanks  for  your  kind  invitation  to 
be  present  at  the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  on  the 
17th  of  June  next,  and  my  regrets  that  my  duties  here  will  prevent 
my  acceptance  of  the  same. 

Yours  respectfully, 

FREDERICK  A.  JOHNSON. 

FROM   EDWARD   TUCK. 

NEW  YORK,  May  27,  1886. 
GEN.  GILMAN  MARSTON  : 

My  dear  Sir,  —  Since  my  return  to  New  York  I  have  received 
from  Exeter  an  official  invitation  to  the  Webster  celebration  at  Con- 
cord, evidently  addressed  to  me  by  you.  I  beg  to  thank  you  most 
sincerely  for  your  kindness  in  thinking  of  me,  and  the  compliment 
of  the  invitation,  which  I  highly  appreciate.  As  Mrs.  Tuck  and  I 
shall  be  moving  to  Newport  at  about  the  time  of  the  celebration,  I 
I  doubt  if  I  shall  be  able  to  be  present ;  but  should  I  be  there,  I 
shall  hope  to  have  an  opportunity  to  thank  you  in  person  for  your 
•courtesy.  At  all  events,  I  shall  call  upon  you  on  my  next  visit  to 
Exeter. 

I  am,  dear  sir, 

Yours  very  truly, 

EDWARD  TUCK. 


106  APPENDIX. 

FROM   C.  A.  BOUTELLE. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  U.  S., 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  30,  1886. 
HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON: 

My  dear  Gen.  Marston, — Your  polite  favor  of  the  28th  is  at  hand, 
and  I  blame  myself  for  causing  you  so  much  trouble  of  writing. 

I  have  no  doubt  the  occasion  will  be  most  interesting,  and  if  I 
should  be  in  New  England  at  the  time,  I  certainly  should  make  an 
effort  to  visit  your  beautiful  city  of  Concord  on  that  day.  I  fear  I 
shall  be  kept  here,  however. 

Very  truly  yours, 

C.  A.  BOUTELLE. 

FROM  W.  R.  MORRISON. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  U.  S., 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  16,  1886. 

HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee: 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  write  to  acknowledge  your  kind  invitation  to  partici- 
pate in  the  exercises  of  the  coming  dedication  at  your  state  capitol, 
and  to  express  my  regrets  at  not  being  able  to  accept. 

Respectfully  yours, 

W.  R.  MORRISON. 

FROM   G.  C.  BURROWS. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  U.  S., 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  21,  1886. 

His  EXCELLENCY,  Governor  of  State : 

Dear  Sir,  —  In  reply  to  yours  of  the  llth  instant,  I  regret  to  say 
that  my  duties  here  will  prevent  me  from  accepting  your  kind  invi- 
tation. 

Yours, 

G.  C.  BURROWS. 

FROM  SAMUEL  DIBBLE. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

WASHINGTON,  June  8,  1886.    > 

His  EXCELLENCY  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire : 

Sir, — Permit  me  to  acknowledge,  with  thanks,  your  courteous  in- 
vitation to  me  to  be  present  at  the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel 


APPENDIX.  107 

"Webster,  at  Concord,  on  the  17th  instant.  I  had  hoped  to  accept 
your  proffered  hospitality,  and,  as  a  South  Carolinian,  to  join  my 
fellow-countrymen  of  New  Hampshire  in  doing  honor  to  the  memory 
of  the  great  New  England  statesman,  whose  career  belongs  not 
simply  to  state  or  section,  but  to  the  entire  country ;  but  the  emer- 
gencies attendant  on  the  closing  weeks  of  the  session  will  prevent 
my  attendance,  and  I  can  only  send  my  regrets,  begging  that  you 
will  accept  also  the  assurance  of  my  respectful  consideration. 
Very  truly  yours, 

SAMUEL  DIBBLE, 

FKOM  WILLIAM   WALTER   PHELPS. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  US., 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  27,  1886. 

To  G.  MARSTON,  ESQ.,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee: 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  thank  you  for  your  kind  invitation  to  participate  in 
the  exercises  of  presenting  a  statue  of  Daniel  Webster  to  your  state, 
and  regret  that  my  public  duties  here  will  prevent  my  being  present. 
Truly  yours, 

WILLIAM  WALTER  PHELPS. 

FROM  SAMUEL  N.  GREEN. 

MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY, 
30  TREMONT  ST.,  BOSTON,  June  14,  1886. 

HON.  G.  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee  : 

Sir,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  polite 
invitation  to  be  present  at  the  dedication  of  the  Webster  statue,  on 
the  17th,  but  a  previous  engagement  for  that  day  will  prevent  my 

acceptance. 

Very  respectfully, 

SAMUEL  N.  GREEN. 

FROM  PETER  B.  OLNEY. 

120  BROADWAY, 
NEW  YORK,  June  14,  1886. 
His  EXCELLENCY  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor, 

HON.  G.  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee  : 
Sirs,  —  I  beg  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  invitation  to  be 
present  at  the  unveiling  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  at  Concord  T 


108  APPENDIX. 

on  the  17th  instant.     I  hope  to  have  the  honor  and  pleasure  of  at- 
tending as  one  of  her  guests  on  this  occasion,  when  the  state  of  New 
Hampshire  pays  fitting  tribute  to  the  memory  of  her  great  son. 
I  am,  dear  sirs, 

Very  truly  yours, 

PETER  B.  OLNEY. 

FROM  CHARLES  F.  MANDERSON. 

UNITED  STATES  SENATE, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  11,  1886. 

MESSRS.  GEORGE  W.  NESMITH,  JOHN  M.  HILL,  AND  JOHN  H. 

GEORGE,  Trustees  for  the  procurement  and  erection  of  a  statue  of 

Daniel  Webster,  at  Concord,  N.  H.  : 

Gentlemen,  —  Your  note  of  invitation,  dated  May  1,  1886,  to  be 
present  at  the  unveiling  and  dedication  of  the  proposed  statue  to 
Daniel  Webster,  at  Concord,  N.  H.,  on  the  17th  proximo,  was 
received.  I  regret  exceedingly  that  public  business  will  prevent 
my  attendance,  but  trust  the  day  may  be  auspicious,  and  the  partici- 
pants sufficiently  numerous  and  representative  in  character  to  fully 
attest  the  esteem  in  which  the  eminent  statesman  and  patriot  was 
held  while  living,  and  his  memory  and  good  deeds  cherished  when 
dead.  Thanking  you  for  the  courtesy  of  your  kind  invitation,  I 
remain, 

Very  respectfully, 

CHARLES  F.  MANDERSON. 

FROM  JOHN  LITTLE. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  U.  S., 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  June  11,  1886. 

HON.  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor,  Concord,  N.  E.  : 

Dear  Sir,  —  Your  kind  invitation  to  be  present,  June  17,  at  the 
dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  the  most  gifted  of  Amer- 
ican statesmen  and  orators,  was  duly  received.  Answer  has  been  de- 
layed with  the  hope  of  being  able  to  accept  the  invitation.  I  now 
see  that  public  duties  here  will  prevent.  Thanking  you  for  the 
honor,  I  am 

Very  respectfully,  etc., 

JOHN  LITTLE. 


APPENDIX.  109 

FROM  DARWIN   E.  WARE. 

BOSTON,  June  14,  1886. 

MESSRS.   GEORGE  W.  NESMITH,  JOHN  M.  HILL,   AND   JOHN  H. 

GEORGE,  Trustees: 

Gentlemen,  —  I  desire  to  acknowledge  the  honor  of  your  request  to 
be  present  at  the  ceremonies  for  the  dedication  of  a  bronze  statue  of 
Daniel  Webster,  at  Concord,  N.  H.,  on  the  17th  of  this  month,  and 
regret  that  other  engagements  on  that  day  oblige  me  to  forego  the 
great  pleasure  which  I  should  have  in  accepting  your  kind  invitation 
and  taking  part  in  an  occasion  so  deeply  interesting. 

Very  truly  yours, 

DARWIN  E.  WARE. 

FROM  A.  L.  SOULE. 

5  F AIRFIELD   ST. 

HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  : 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  regret  that  the  state  of  my  health  makes  it  impossi- 
ble for  me  to  accept  your  kind  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  unveil- 
ing of  a  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  at  Concord,  N.  H.,  on  the  17th 
instant. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  L.  SOULE. 

FROM   C.  A.  BOUTELLE. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  U.  S., 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  19,  1886. 
HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON  : 

My  dear  General  Marston,  —  Your  pleasant  letter  of  the  17th 
received,  and  I  am  obliged  for  the  cordial  invitation.  Of  course  you 
understood  that  my  purpose  in  sending  back  the  former  card  was 
solely  humorous.  Quite  a  number  of  the  invitations  received  here 
were  evidently  intended  for  different  governors,  and  probably 
became  mixed  in  mailing. 

I  need  not  assure  you  that  ^appreciate  the  courtesy,  and  should 
greatly  enjoy  visiting  Concord  at  the  time  of  the  dedication,  but 
regret  that  I  shall  be  unable  to  leave  here  at  that  time. 

Sincerely  yours, 

C.  A.  BOUTELLE. 


110  APPENDIX. 

FROM  C AUSTEN  BROWNE. 

82  WATER  ST., 
BOSTON,  June  12,  1886. 
HON.  G.  MARSTON,  Concord,  N.  H. : 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  to  acknowledge,  with  sincere  thanks,  your 
invitation  to  participate,  as  the  guest  of  the  state,  in  the  exercises 
attending  the  dedication  of  the  Webster  statue,  on  the  17th,  but  am 
obliged  to  deny  myself  the  pleasure  of  being  present. 

Very  truly  yours, 

CAUSTEN  BROWNE. 

FROM   E.  T.  BURLEY. 

LAWRENCE,  June  15,  1886. 
COL.  JOHN  H.  GEORGE  : 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  regret  to, say  that  I  find  myself  unable  to  avail  my- 
self of  your  kind  invitation  to  visit  Concord  on  the  17th  instant. 
Thanking  you  for  the  invitation,  I  remain 

Yours  truly, 

~E.  T.  BURLEY. 

FROM  T.  L.  CLINGMAN. 

WASHINGTON  CITY,  June  15,  1886. 
HON.  MOODY  CURRIER  : 

Honored  Sir,  —  Your  favor  inviting  me  to  be  present,  as  a  guest 
of  your  state,  on  the  occasion  of  the  dedication  of  the  statue  of 
Daniel  Webster,  was  received  some  weeks  ago.  I  did  not  make  an 
earlier  reply  because  I  was  in  hopes  that  I  might  be  able  to  be 
present.  I  now  regret  to  be  obliged  to  decline  on  account  of  business 
engagements.  This  is  to  me  a  cause  of  much  regret,  as  Mr.  Webster 
and  I  were  on  terms  of  great  intimacy  for  many  years  during  the 
latter  part  of  his  life. 

His  remarkable  strength  and  breadth  of  intellect,  his  public  spirit 
and  patriotism,  his  freedom  from  selfishness  and  intrigues  for  his 
personal  advancement,  and  the  gi'andeur  and  elevation  of  his 
thoughts  and  emotions,  gave  him  a  position  surpassed  by  no  man  of 
his  day.  I  am  much  gratified  to  know  that  his  native  state  has  taken 
proper  steps  to  show  her  appreciation  of  his  great  qualities  and 
public  services. 

With  sentiments  of  the  highest  respect,  I  am 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

T.  L.  CLINGMAN. 


APPENDIX.  Ill 

FROM   CHARLES   P.  THOMPSON. 

GLOUCESTER,  MASS.,  June  14,  1886. 
HON.  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire, 

HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee: 
Dear  Sirs,  —  Your  invitation  to  participate  at  Concord,  on  the  17th 
of  June,  1886,  in  the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster 
presented  to  the  state  of  New  Hampshire  by  Benjamin  Pierce 
Cheney,  has  been  received,  and  I  deeply  regret  that  I  am  compelled 
to  say  that  I  cannot  be  with  you  on  that  most  interesting  occasion. 
A  statue  at  the  capital  of  his  native  state  is  certainly  a  most  appro- 
priate expression  of  her  appreciation  of  his  character,  principles, 
and  services.  The  commonwealth  of  his  adoption  has  long  since 
given  practical  expression  of  her  judgment  of  the  appropriateness 
of  such  a  memorial.  It  will  be  a  constant  instructor  of  the  people 
in  the  dut}"-  of  patriotic  devotion  to  the  Union,  the  constitution,  and 
liberty  regulated  by  law.  Love  of  country  was  his  inspiration.  And 
he  devoted  all  his  great  powers  to  the  promotion  of  the  prosperity 
and  glory  of  his  country.  While  his  memory  is  venerated  we  may 
confidently  cherish  the  hope  that  the  objects  of  his  patriotic  and  self- 
sacrificing  labors  will  be  cherished  and  defended. 

Again  expressing  my  regret  that  I  shall  not  be  able  to  participate 
in  the  exercises  of  the  dedication,  I  am 

Very  respectfully  your  obedient  servant, 

CHARLES  P.  THOMPSON. 

FROM  AARON   F.  STEVENS. 

NASHUA,  N.  H.,  June  15,  1886. 
HON.  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor, 

HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee : 
Gentlemen,  —  I  have  delayed  my  answer  to  your  kind  invitation  to 
be  present,  as  a  guest  of  the  state,  at  the  dedication  of  the  Webster 
gtatue  on  the  17th  instant,  intending  to  avail  myself  of  the  pleasure  of 
its  acceptance  if  not  prevented  by  ill  health.  It  is  with  the  sincerest 
regret  that  I  am  compelled  to  absent  myself  from  this  most  interest- 
ing ceremonial.  No  true  citizen  of  New  Hampshire  can  fail  to  ap- 
preciate the  noble  gift  which  our  state  has  accepted,  or  to  covet  the 
honor  of  being  present  at  its  dedication.  It  is,  indeed,  a  memorial 
to  the  greatest  citizen  of  New  Hampshire,  to  the  foremost  lawyer 
and  statesman  of  his  generation.  Let  us  trust  that  this  majestic 


112  APPENDIX. 

form  will  stand  an  enduring  tribute  to  the  unrivaled  genius  of  her 
greatest  son  —  the  orator  and  statesman  whose  eloquence  turned 
back  the  tide  of  nullification,  exploded  the  heresy  of  secession,  and 
implanted  in  the  hearts  of  his  intelligent  countrymen  for  all  future 
time  the  time  nature  of  our  government,  and  the  character  and  value 
of  our  national  Union. 

I  am  with  sincere  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

AARON  F.  STEVENS. 

FROM  LYMAN   TRUMBULL. 

CHICAGO,  ILL.,  June  15,  1886. 
GOVERNOR  MOODY  CURRIER  : 

Dear  Sir,  —  It  would  give  me  pleasure  to  participate  in  the  exer- 
cises attendant  on  the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  if 
circumstances  would  admit  of  my  attendance. 

As  a  great  lawyer,  statesman,  and  orator,  he  was  not  only  foremost 
among  the  men  of  his  day  and  generation,  but  he  has  left  for  the 
imitation  and  admiration  of  mankind  works  which  they  will  study  as 
models  for  generations  to  come.  It  is  well  that  the  features  of  such 
a  man  should  be  preserved  in  mai-ble  and  metals,  but  no  monument 
will  be  as  enduring  as  the  thoughts  which  sprang  from  his  giant  in- 
tellect, which  are  preserved  in  the  annals  of  his  country's  history, 
and  have  spread  through  the  civilized  world. 

Yours  very  truly, 

LYMAN  TRUMBULL. 

FROM   CHARLES   DEVENS. 

BOSTON,  May  28,  1886. 

HON.  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire, 
HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  Legislative  Committee : 
Gentlemen,  —  I  am  much  honored  by  the  invitation  to  join,  as  a 
guest  of  the  state  of  New  Hampshire,  in  the  dedication  of  a  statue 
to  her  illustrious  son,  Daniel  Webster,  and  regret  that  my  engage- 
ments as  president  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  Association,  ta 
which  Mr.  Webster  himself  rendered  such  splendid  service,  compel 
me  to  decline  it. 

I  am  quite  sure  that  the  association  at  its  meeting  on  the  17th  will 
not  fail  to  render  its  tribute  to  his  memory. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

CHARLES  DEVENS. 


APPENDIX.  113 

FROM   GEORGE   S.  BOUT  WELL. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  19,  1886. 
To  His  EXCELLENCY  GOVERNOR  MOODY  CURRIER: 

Sir,  —  I  have  had  the  honor  to  receive  your  invitation  to  attend 
the  dedication  of  a  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  at  the  capitol  of  the 
state  of  New  Hampshire,  the  17th  day  of  June  next.  The  arrange- 
ments that  I  have  made  and  the  obligations  of  business  resting  upon 
me  will  prevent  me  from  attending  the  ceremonies.  This  I  regret, 
as  there  is  no  one  of  the  statesmen  of  a  former  generation  to  whom 
the  country  is  more  largely  indebted  than  to  Mr.  Webster. 
Very  truly, 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

GEORGE  S.  BOUTWELL. 

FROM  THE  GOVERNOR  OF  FLORIDA. 

EXECUTIVE  OFFICE, 
TALLAHASSEE,  FLA.,  May  15,  1886. 

To  His  EXCELLENCY  MOODY  CURRIER,    Governor  of  New  Hamp- 
shire : 

Governor, — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your 
courteous  invitation  to  be  present,  as  a  guest  of  your  state,  to  partici- 
pate in  an  honor  to.  the  distinguished  memory  of  one  who,  as  time 
rolls  on,  is  more  and  more  generally  recognized  as  the  grandest  in- 
tellectual production  of  our  country.  With  assurances  of  my  sincere 
regret  that  my  official  duties  will  not  permit  me  to  avail  myself  of 
your  courtesy,  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  high  esteem, 
Your  obedient  servant, 

E.  A.  PERRY, 
Governor  oj  Florida. 

FROM  JAMES   H.  JOHNSON. 

BATH,  N.  H.,  June  1,  1886. 

Governor  of  New  Hampshire : 

Dear  Sir,  —  Your  invitation  to  attend  the  dedication  of  the  statue 
of  Daniel  Webster,  at  Concord,  June  17,  as  guest  of  the  state,  gives 
me  much  pleasure,  and  I  deeply  regret  that  the  infirmities  of  age 
will  prevent  me  from  accepting  it. 

I  was  present  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  Bunker  Hill 


114  APPENDIX. 

Monument,  and  heard  Daniel  Webster's  famous  speech  in  which  he 
said  :  "Let  it  rise !  let  it  rise  !  let  it  rise,  till  it  meets  the  sun  in  its 
coming,  and  let  the  earliest  light  of  the  morning  gild  it,  and  depart- 
ing day  linger  and  play  upon  its  summit."  I  knew  him  well  the 
four  years  I  was  a  member  of  the  house,  and  heard  him  speak  in  the 
senate  many  times,  and  always  with  a  thrill  of  pleasure  and  delight 
in  the  thought  that  we  were  from  the  same  state,  and  had  a  pride  in 
its  granite  hills.  He  was  the  greatest  man  I  ever  met,  and  I  rejoice 
that  Mr.  Benjamin  Pierce  Cheney  has  presented  his  statue  to  the 
state,  thus  connecting  his  own  worthy  name  with  one  whom  New 
Hampshire  cherishes  as  her  most  intellectual  and  talented  son. 

I  offer  my  sincere  thanks  to  the  state  for  the  compliment  of  the 
invitation. 

Most  respectfully  yours, 

JAMES  H.  JOHNSON. 

FROM   B.  M.  CUTCHEON,  M.  C. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  U.  S., 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  26,  1886. 

HON.  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire : 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your 
invitation  to  participate  in  the  exercises  connected  with  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  at  the  state  capitol,  June  17, 
1886.  It  would  give  me  the  greatest  gratification  to  be  able  to  be 
present  on  that  most  interesting  occasion,  in  my  own  native  county, 
but  my  official  duties  here  will  forbid  me  that  privilege.  With 
thanks  for  the  invitation,  I  am 

Very  truly  yours, 

B.  M.  CUTCHEON,  M.  C. 

FROM  C.  C.  COMSTOCK. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  U.  S., 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  26,  1886. 

To  THE  HON.  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire  : 

Dear  Sir, — Please  accept  my  thanks  for  your  kind  invitation  to 
attend  the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  the  world-renowned  statesman, 
Daniel  Webster,  at  Concord,  on  the  17th  of  June  next.  I  should  be 
more  than  pleased  to  again  visit  my  native  state  on  that  occasion 
were  it  possible  for  me  to  do  so.  Although  for  the  last  thirty-three 


APPENDIX.  115 

years  my  adopted  home  has  been  in  the  great  and  now  wealthy  state 
of.  Michigan,  I  have  with  gratitude  ever  been  mindful  of  the  lessons 
of  industry  and  economy  taught  me  in  the  dear  old  granite  state, 
and  I  remain,  dear  sir, 

Most  truly  your  obedient  servant, 

C.  C.  COMSTOCK. 

FROM  JOHN  H.  REAGAN. 

COMMITTEE  ON  COMMERCE, 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  26,  1886. 
HON.  MOODY  CURRIER, 

HON.  G.  MARSTON  : 

Your  circular  letter  of  May  11,  inviting  me  to  be  present  at  the 
dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  at  the  state  capitol,  at 
Concord,  Thursday,  June  17,  1886,  is  just  received.  My  duties  here 
will  deny  me  the  pleasure  of  being  present  and  participating  in  the 
ceremonies  connected  with  the  dedication  of  the  statue  in  honor  of 
Mr.  Webster.  His  great  learning,  his  great  ability,  and  great  pa- 
triotism, and  the  veneration  in  which  his  virtues  are  held  by  the 
whole  American  people,  make  it  eminently  fit  that  his  native  state 
should  commemorate  his  life,  his  services,  and  his  worth  by  the 
erection  of  a  statue,  and  I  would  gladly  participate  in  the  ceremonies 
of  its  inauguration  if  my  duties  here  were  of  a  nature  that  I  could 
abandon  them  for  the  time  being. 

Yours  very  respectfully, 

JOHN  H.  REAGAN. 

FROM  J.  R.  DOOLITTLE. 

ROYAL  INSURANCE  BUILDING, 

CHICAGO,  June  1,  1886. 

To  the  Governor,  and  Chairman  of  the  Legislative  Committee  of  the 

State  of  New  Hampshire : 

Gentlemen, — Your  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  dedication  of 
the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  at  the  capitol,  in  Concord,  on  the  17th 
of  June  instant,  and  to  participate  in  the  exercises  of  that  day,  as  a 
guest  of  the  state,  is  duly  received.  I  would  dearly  love  to  accept 
it,  but  I  am  constrained  to  decline.  It  would,  indeed,  be  an  honor 
and  a  joy  to  be  there,  and  to  stand  among  those  who,  in  looking  upon 


116  APPENDIX. 

the  statue  of  the  great  son  of  New  Hampshire,  will  call  to  mind 
those  words,  never  more  dear  to  every  true  American  heart  than  now, 
which  in  a  great  crisis  came  from  the  depths  of  his  soul,  fifty  years 
ago:  "Liberty  and  union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable!" 
That  utterance,  that  inspiration,  sustained  by  President  Jackson,  the 
great  son  of  South  Carolina,  crushed  out  the  first  attempt  at  disunion 
in  1832 ;  that  same  idea,  in  which  alone  the  great  republic  lives  and 
moves  and  has  its  being,  triumphed  in  the  great  civil  war.  It  tri- 
umphed not  only  because  it  is  true,  —  and  what  is  true  is  from  God, 
—  but  because  that  idea  rules  the  hearts  and  lives  of  the  American 
people,  and  always  will.  In  that  idea  alone  we  conquered.  To  that 
idea  the  South  surrendered.  On  that  idea  peace  has  come,  and  the 
Union  under  the  constitution  has  been  re-established  at  last ;  a  Union 
in  which  every  state  and  every  citizen  has  equal  rights,  under  the 
constitution  and  laws.  All  honor  to  the  great  senator. 

Respectfully  yours, 

J.  R.  DOOLITTLE. 


FROM  SAMUEL  J.  RANDALL. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  31,  1886. 

His  EXCELLENCY  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire, 
HON.  GILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee : 
Dear  Sirs,  —  I  acknowledge  the  honor  of  your  invitation  to  par- 
ticipate, as  guest  of  the  state,  in  the  dedication  of  the  statue  of 
Daniel  Webster  presented  by  Benjamin  Pierce  Cheney,  at  the  state 
capitol,  June  17  next.  While  it  will  be  impossible  for  me  at  that 
time  to  absent  myself  from  my  public  duties,  and  while  I  regret  my 
inability  to  accept  your  courteous  invitation,  I  shall  gladly  join  in 
the  spirit  of  the  occasion.  We  have  had  many  great  men,  but  as  an 
orator  Webster  remains  peerless ;  as  a  statesman  he  overcame  by  his 
wonderful  exposition  all  assailants  of  the  principles  of  our  free 
government,  and  in  nothing  was  he  greater  than  in  the  noble  fidelity 
with  which  he  maintained  his  faith  to  the  last  moment  of  his  life. 
His  memory  is  deeply  cherished,  as  it  ought  to  be,  in  every  corner 
of  the  land. 
With  personal  esteem,  I  am 

Very  truly  yours, 

SAMUEL  J.  RANDALL. 


APPENDIX.  117 

FROM  G.  G.  VEST. 

UNITED  STATES  SENATE, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  14,  1886. 
GOVERNOR  MOODY  CURRIER  : 

Dear  Sir,  —  Your  very  kind  invitation  of  the  llth  instant,  inviting 
me  to  participate  in  the  exercises  attending  the  dedication  of  the 
statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  on  June  the  17th  next,  has  been  received. 
I  desire  to  return  my  thanks,  and  to  express  my  regret  that  other  en- 
gagements of  an  imperative  nature  will  prevent  my  accepting  your 
invitation. 

I  especially  regret  to  be  compelled  to  so  write,  for  the  reason  that 
nothing  would  give  me  greater  pleasure  than  to  evidence  in  the  most 
public  manner  my  great  admiration  for  the  public  character  of  Mr. 
Webster,  and  my  appreciation  of  his  great  services  to  our  common 
country.  His  reputation  as  a  statesman  and  lawyer  will  last  so  long 
as  our  country  exists.  Very  truly,  etc., 

G.  G.  VEST. 

FROM  W.  C.  WHITNEY. 

NAVY  DEPARTMENT, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  14,  1886. 

To  His  EXCELLENCY  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire  : 
Sir,  —  Your  kind  invitation  to  participate  in  the  exercises  of  the 
day,  as  a  guest  of  the  state  of  New  Hampshire,  on  the  occasion  of 
the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  at  Concord,  on  Thurs- 
day, June  17,  1886,  has  been  received.  It  would  give  me  pleasure 
to  be  present,  but  my  engagements  are  such  as  will  not  permit. 

I  trust  that  the  ceremonies  may  in  every  way  be  worthy  of  the 
illustrious  statesman  whom  you  so  appropriately  remember. 
With  many  thanks,  I  have  the  honor  to  be 

Very  truly  yours, 

W.  C.  WHITNEY. 

FROM  ABRAM  S.  HEWITT. 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  May  18,  1886. 

His  EXCELLENCY  MOODY  CURRIER,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire, 
HON.  GILMAN  MAUSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee, 
Concord,  N.  H. : 

Gentlemen,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your 
invitation  to  be  present  at  the  state  capitol,  in  Concord,  on  Thursday, 


118  APPENDIX. 

the  17th  of  June  next,  and  to  participate  in  the  exercises  attendant 
upon  the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  Daniel  Webster.  If  it  were  in 
my  power  to  leave  Washington  at  the  date  indicated,  I  should  cer- 
tainly come  to  New  Hampshire  in  order  to  manifest  the  profound 
admiration  which  I  entertain  for  the  unrivaled  abilities  of  the  most 
distinguished  son  of  New  Hampshire,  whose  services  cannot  be  held 
in  too  much  honor  by  the  citizens  of  our  common  country.  The 
longer  I  live  the  more  profound  is  my  appreciation  of  the  wonderful 
intellect  and  the  broad  statesmanship  of  the  great  expounder  of  the 
constitution.  If  I  could  be  sure  that  his  teachings  would  always  be 
heeded  by  his  countrymen,  I  should  have  absolute  confidence  in  the 
perpetuity  of  our  free  institutions.  I  can  only  commend  the  study 
of  his  work  and  his  career  to  the  rising  generation,  in  the  hope  that 
they  will  profit  by  his  great  example. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

ABRAM  S.  HEWITT. 

FROM   GEOKGE   F.  RICHARDSON. 

LOWELL,  THURSDAY,  June  10,  1886. 
GENERAL  GILMAN  MARSTON,  Chairman  of  Legislative  Committee : 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  received,  and  accept  with  great  pleasure,  your 
polite  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  dedication  of  a  statue  of  New 
Hampshire's  greatest  son. 

Remembering  well  the  profound  impression  which  Daniel  Web- 
ster's mere  presence  once  made  upon  my  youthful  mind,  I  feel 
assured  that  his  "counterfeit  presentment"  will  lead  others  to  a 
study  of  the  life  and  character  of  him,  who,  as  a  statesman  and  a 
lawyer,  occupied  for  so  many  years  the  very  first  rank  in  American 
history,  and  whose  published  speeches,  whether  delivered  in  the 
forum  or  at  the  bar,  are  to-day  not  only  models  of  the  purest  Eng- 
lish, but  abound  in  periods  of  the  sublimest  eloquence. 

Your  state  will  gratefully  cherish  the  memory  of  another  son,  who 
has  generously  caused  this  statue  to  be  erected  as  an  ornament  to  its 
capital  and  a  lesson  to  its  people. 

I  have  the  honor  to  subscribe  myself, 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

GEORGE  F.  RICHARDSON. 


ORIGINAL  DEED  OF  THE  WEBSTER  HOME. 


The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  original  deed  of  the 
home  farm  upon  which  Daniel  Webster  was  born,  framed 
and  presented  to  Benjamin  P.  Cheney,  Esq.,  by  Fred  F. 
Hassam,  June  17,  1886  : 

Know  all  men  by  these  Presents  that  we  Benjamin  Huntoon  & 
John  Collins  of  Salisbury  in  the  County  of  Hillsborough  &  State  of 
New  Hampshire  being  a  committee  of  the  Proprietors  of  Salisbury 
Late  Stevenstown  For  and  in  Consideration  of  the  sum  of  Forty 
Eight  Pounds  Lawful  money  to  us  in  hand  for  the  use  of  Said  Pro- 
prietors before  the  Delivery  hereof  well  and  truly  Paid  by  Ebenezer 
Webster  of  Salisbury  in  the  County  and  State  aforesaid  Gentlemen 
the  Receipt  whereof  we  Do  hereby  acknowledge  have  Given  Granted 
bargained  and  Sold  and  Do  in  our  Capasity  as  a  Committee  Give 
Grant  bargain  Sell  aliene  enfeeoff  convey  and  Confirm  unto  him  the 
said  Ebenezer  Webster  his  heirs  and  assigns  forever  a  Certain  Peace 
or  Parsel  of  Land  Lying  in  the  township  of  Salisbury  aforesaid  Con- 
taining about  twenty  acres  more  or  Less  (viz)  beginning  at  the 
Southwesterly  Corner  bound  of  the  Intervale  Lott  Number  Eighty 
that  was  Laid  out  to  the  Right  of  Saml  Solly  and  Clement  March 
then  Running  westerly  perelal  with  the  Southerly  side  line  of  Said 
Lot  till  it  Strikes  the  Easterly  Side  line  of  the  100  acre  Lot  No  1 
originally  Phillip  Call.s  then  Northerly  on  Said  Line  to  the  North- 
easterly Corner  bound,  of  Said  100  acre  Lot  then  Easterly  till  it 
Strikes  the  Southwesterly  Corner  of  the  60  acre  Lot  No  1  originally 
Said  Phillip  Call.s  then  Southeasterly  on  the  Southerly  Side  Line  of 
said  60  acre  Lot  till  it  Comes  to  the  North  westerly  Corner  bounds 
of  the  Intervale  Lot  No.  75  originally  Laid  out  to  the  Right  of 
Joshua  Webster  jr  then  Southerly  to  the  bounds  first  mentioned :  To 
have  and  to  hold  the  above  Granted  and  bargained  Premises  together 


120  APPENDIX. 

with  all  the  Privileges  and  appurtenances  to  the  Same  appertaining 
to  him  the  Said  Ebenezer  Webster  his  heirs  and  assigns  as  an  abso- 
lute Estate  of  inheritance  in  fee  Simple  forever  and  we  the  Said 
Benjamin  Huntoon  and  John  Collins  in  our  Capasity  as  a  Committee 
Do  Covenant  and  Engage  by  these  Presents  to  warrant  and  defend 
the  above  Demised  Premises  to  him  the  Said  Webster  his  heirs  and 
assigns  against  the  Lawful  Claims  and  Demands  of  all  Persons 
whomsoever  in  witness  whereof  we  have  hereunto  Set  our  Hands 
and  Seals  this  Ninth  Day  of  October  Anno  Domini  1781. 


Benjamin  Huntoon, 

John  Collins. 

Q  of  Land. 

Signed  Sealed  and  Delivered  in  Presence  of  us 
John  Collins  Gale 
Joseph  Bartlet 

The  back  of  the  deed  has  the  following-  : 

O 

Hillsborough  ss  Salisbury  October  9th  1781     Then  the  Within 
Named  Benjamin  Huntoon  &  John  Collins  Personally  appeared  & 
acknowledged  the  within  Instrument  to  be  their  free  act  &  Deed 
Before  me 

Joseph  Bartlett 

Just.  Peace 
Deed  from 
Huntoon  &  Collins 

to  Webster 
Hillsborough  ss  Reed 
12;  Dec;  1787. 

Recorded  Lib.  18  : 
Fol;  458:  & 

Examined 
p.  Moses  Nichols  RJ)  R 

Colo  Webster  Salisbury. 


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